This report reviews the benchmarking practices that are presently being used at community colleges. It introduces the concept of a "culture of inquiry" as a means for judging their potential value. It classifies benchmarking efforts among three types--performance, diagnostic, and process--and characterizes each by its typical use. The…

Monitoring the Future is an ongoing program of research intended to assess the changing lifestyles, values, and preferences of American youth. This publication, from the occasional paper series, describes a study that monitors drug use and potential explanatory factors among American secondary school students, college students, and young adults.…

Since its introduction in 1983, Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences has attracted widespread interest among educators. The chapters in this book describe alternative assessments that capture the range of intelligences, allow the intelligences to be given more equal weight, use intelligence-fair formats, and focus on student…

An approach to assessment is described that allows students to understand and help decide the criteria for good work. It is called "negotiable contracting." Negotiable contracting consists of giving students shared ownership in their own learning. The teacher serves as a facilitator of discussion of the assessment process. Students and the…

In the summer of 1996, the Principals' Center at Texas A&M University established a School Leadership Initiative (SLI) that focused on the 21 principal-performance domains as identified by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration. During the first year of a 3-year leadership initiative, Texas A&M University's SLI Program…

This report discusses the outcomes of a project that examined the acquisition of reading and writing skills in 135 children with deafness or who are hard of hearing. Eighty-three of the children attended a state-sponsored residential school and 52 attended a local school district program where students with deafness or who are hard of hearing are…

A study addressed the impact of household composition--preschool, school-age, or no children--and nature of the home workspace--dedicated room or area--on IBM employees' satisfaction, stress, and work effectiveness. The IBM program allowed 300 employees who spent about 70 percent of their time with clients to work in home offices. Surveys,…

The National Consortium on Inclusive Schooling Practices (1996) developed a framework to analyze state and local policies and their effects on school inclusion. The framework focuses on standards-based systemic reform across six major policy areas: curriculum, student assessment, accountability, personnel development and professional training,…

The Physical Therapy Department of Nova Southeastern University (NSU PT) changed its curriculum to problem-based learning, and in conjunction with changes needed new evaluation forms for accreditation and program requirements. The purpose of this practicum study was the development and validation of faculty and course evaluation forms for students…

This document is part of a series of guides for teachers in which the Division of Bilingual Education of the New York City Board of Education presents a learner-centered model in which the learner sees himself or herself in the story. Learners are able to relive their own experiences or those of their parents or grandparents as they left their own…

Motivational beliefs of children in grades 5 through 8 (ages 10 years, 9 months to 13 years, 7 months) were assessed in a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study. Children attended a nonsectarian, private school in which the method of evaluating academic performance changed over grades from an individualized, mastery-oriented approach to a…

First-year students (n=255) at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania completed a survey instrument concerning human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), during the initial meetings of a general health course. Ninety-four percent of respondents had received information about HIV/AIDS at the secondary school level.…

Inconsistencies in scores from computer-simulated and "hands-on" science performance assessments have led to questions about the exchangeability of these two methods in spite of the highly touted potential of computer-simulated performance assessment. This investigation considered possible explanations for students' inconsistent performances: (1)…

The purpose of this study was to compare how learning outcomes are influenced by a number of key student composition (language background, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and gender) and school context variables on a direct writing performance assessment. The sample was randomly selected from a population of 13,604 third graders in 175 public…

Throughout Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries, school systems and individual schools are experimenting with new approaches to management that seek to run schools in ways that are right for the 21st century. Those who manage these schools must take responsibility for an arduous task due to the complexity…