This article presents a model that instructional leaders can use to engage in a change process that fosters effective instructional change in school districts and individual school buildings, specifically middle schools and alternative middle schools. The authors describe four dimensions of leadership and explain how each dimension informs…

Biology in Context ("bik") is a project that aims to improve biology teaching in lower secondary schools in Germany. Based on a theoretical framework derived from the National Educational Standards, four competence areas should be fostered in biology education: subject knowledge; inquiry acquisition; subject-related communication; and…

This article describes how two instructors used assessment data to improve an undergraduate course, Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary Classroom. This entailed revising the core assignment for the course--the creation of a thematic unit of instruction--and developing a scoring guide to assess teacher candidates' performance. Data collected…

The long-term concern relative to education inequity indicates that the nation's youth will not be adequately prepared for the global and highly competitive marketplace of the 21st century (Casner-Lotto & Barrington, 2006). Initiatives to address this concern persist, including the creation of the virtual charter school (Vanourek, 2006;…

This study evaluated the influence of general and mathematics-specific classroom instructional quality on the mathematical development of a sample of Head Start preschool children. It also examined whether children's age, pre-test mathematical knowledge, and English language learner status influenced the quality of their curricular…

Formative assessment has recently become a focus of renewed research as state and federal policy-makers realize that summative assessments have reached a point of diminishing returns as a tool for increasing student achievement. Consequently, supporters of large-scale testing programs are now beginning to consider the potential of formative…

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for evaluating a professional development school program to enact an evidence-based model for a continuous cycle of program improvement. Guided by the logic model for program evaluation, we developed three survey instruments based on the professional development school standards of the National…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of multi-drafting among college students according to demographic characteristics and measure its impact on students' achievements. Design/methodology/approach: The research was conducted in two stages. First, a preliminary research based on data from the Highlearn web-based content…

The premise is advanced that a major weakness of the everyday generic instructional systems design model stems from a too modest traditional conception of the purpose and potential of formative evaluation. In the typical ISD (instructional systems design) model formative evaluation is shown not at all or as a single, product evaluation step. Yet…

A brief description of cultural pluralism and its implications for schooling, plus some concepts of needs assessment, including a statement of what it should not be, is given. Specific illustrations of how to conduct needs assessments to encourage multi-cultural orientation also is included. (HB)

Formative and non-formative evaluation are examined from the viewpoints of adaptation to improve individual performance and maintenance to preserve an existing system. (Author)

Described a plan that will facilitate the development of new ideas which will have a positive impact on educational practices; enable educators to test and/or adapt practices (which may have been used elsewhere) to the province; and, thereby, improve learning opportunities for students. (Author/RK)

It is assumed that the delineation of values is critical to proper needs assessments. "Need" is defined as a requisite or desideratum generated as a discrepancy between a target state (T) and an actual state (A), if and only if the presence of the conditions defined by T can be shown significantly to harm, indispose, or constrain a subject (S).…

Sources of confusion about the distinction between process and product measurement are identified, and the effect of the distinction on evaluation quality is shown. Process measurement involves the measure of behavior, performance of a task which generates no products, an independent variable or treatment, use in diagnosing performance, and means.…