This report provides information on the relationships among students and community characteristics, fiscal and educational resources, and student outcomes at the school-division level. Data from the 1989-90 Outcome Accountability Project include 50 indicators of division-level student outcomes. The factors related to these outcomes were examined…

Intended to help students from language-minority backgrounds develop literacy in English, this book identifies and answers the major questions surrounding reading instruction for English as a second language (ESL) students. Specifically, the book reviews and synthesizes what is known about background issues related to the education of ESL…

This paper examines some prominent criticisms of higher education and contends that systems theory is a means of understanding the nature of the problems by taking into account the complexity of interconnections among several factors. Problems discussed include: (1) inflated grades awarded to today's university students do not reflect their true…

Education is presently undergoing a paradigm shift, with some teachers, parents, and administrators interested in new ways of thinking about teaching and learning, while others are skeptical or even resistant to new ideas in education. The Whole Language movement, and holistic education in general, is in danger of being tossed aside like the "New…

This background paper provides a picture of general progress in vocational education assessment instruments and policies. Chapter 1 explains the paper's purposes and presents a summary of its contents. Chapter 2 traces the evolution of federal accountability requirements in vocational education law and explains the intent of the 1990 provisions.…

Initial efforts to validate a developmentally appropriate assessment system for use with children aged 3 to 7 years are described. The Project Construct Assessment System is part of a comprehensive framework for curriculum and assessment that is predicated on the theory that children construct their own knowledge. It features a variety of…

This study was aimed at extending previous correlational findings on the motivational components of test performance, studied among seventh graders by Pintrich and De Groot, to college students and to sequential task performance, including a voluntarily performed task. Performance was also examined under different experimental conditions of…

The California Assessment Collaborative (CAC) was designed as a three-year effort to identify, validate, and disseminate alternatives to standardized testing throughout the state. This report highlights the results from the first year and comments on the work of 22 diverse pilot projects that serve as examples of site-based development of…

A follow-up study was conducted at William Rainey Harper College (Illinois) to gather information from former sociology and/or anthropology students that would be useful in evaluating the sociology/anthropology department. All 696 students who had been enrolled in the last 5 years and had taken at least three courses in sociology and/or…

The two separate evaluation instruments combined here are designed to help companies identify applicants for the positions of director and child care provider who have the greatest probability of being outstanding performers on the job. Each instrument contains three sections. Section 1 is an interest and willingness checklist, which acts as a…

A regional center for physically disabled children in Gothenburg, Sweden, called Bracke Ostergard, teaches non-speaking pupils to communicate with Bliss symbols. School records were examined for the 38 non-speaking pupils, mostly cerebral palsied, who had been trained to use Bliss symbols. Results showed that, of the 32 cerebral palsied children,…

Author-generated summaries/outlines of papers presented at the annual conference of the International Personnel Management Association Assessment Council (IPMAAC) in 1988 are provided. The "Presidential Address" is by N. E. Abrams. The keynote address is "Is There a Future for Intelligence?" by R. Thorndike. Summaries of 53…

This book supports constructive discussion about assessment and provides concrete directions for change. The 10 chapters outline many of the difficulties associated with current standardized testing. While most educators refer to the new non-standardized test efforts as alternative assessments, this type of assessment is increasingly being called…

A survey assessed states' initial efforts in the development of performance measures and standards for vocational education. All 50 states and the District of Columbia responded to the survey. Seventy-one percent were planning to develop separate systems of accountability for secondary and postsecondary vocational education. About one-half of all…

This guide delineates the tasks and performance standards for radiologic technology occupations. It includes job seeking skills, work attitudes, energy conservation practices, and safety. The guide is centered around the three domains of learning: psychomotor, cognitive, and affective. For each duty, the following are provided: task, standard of…