Describes a system that performs automatic summaries of news from a large commercial news service encompassing 41 different publications. This system was compared to a system that used only the lead sentences of the texts. Lead-based summaries significantly outperformed the sentence-selection summaries. (AEF)

Presents a formal object-oriented specification model (OSS) for computer software system development that is supported by a tool that automatically generates a prototype from an object-oriented analysis model (OSA) instance, lets the user examine the prototype, and permits the user to refine the OSA model instance to generate a requirements…

Contends that, as career counseling shifts from educational to psychological focus, accountability issues become harder to address. Sees need for new model for career counseling evaluation, one that counselors consider relevant/practical, that can address formative and summative evaluation, and that is capable of embracing informal observations…

Assessment of college teaching is viewed broadly as the gathering of information for understanding and improving teaching as well as judging its quality. It is seen to play a crucial support role at each stage of instructional development: problem clarification, instructional design/redesign, and field testing and implementation. (MSE)

The use of the vignette method with a small group of respondents over a two-year teacher enhancement project sponsored by the National Science Foundation is described, and the usefulness of the method is reviewed. Vignette data provide material sufficient to answer evaluation questions. (SLD)

Offers a teacher evaluation model designed to help principals understand their role as instructional supervisor. The model can also help teachers understand the nature of the evaluation being accomplished, facilitate the delegation of formative evaluation to others, and reconcile two seemingly irreconcilable processes. (12 references) (MLH)

Formative evaluation of San Francisco's Homeless Prenatal Program showed that it improves birth outcomes and transforms clients' lives. Its empowerment model emphasizes the mother-child connection as well as "giving back"; community health outreach workers were themselves homeless mothers who provide peer support and serve as role…

Examined students' rates of academic growth (slopes of achievement). Using standard Curriculum-Based Measurement procedures in reading, spelling, and mathematics, students in Year 1 (n=546) were measured weekly; students in Year 2 (n=2,511) were measured at least monthly. Results provided corroborating data across years and interesting patterns…

An interactive, computer-based assessment system implemented at the University of Luton (England) delivers end-of-module examinations, formative assessments, and self-assessment options. Student and faculty response to computer-based objective testing has been positive and suggests the approach is desirable both pedagogically and economically.…

In this age of accountability, evaluation must become an integral part of staff development. This paper describes what evaluation is; the three types of evaluation (planning, formative, and summative); and the five critical stages of staff development evaluation. It presents 12 guidelines for improving the quality of professional-development…

Describes the design and development of the Computer Logging of User Entries (CLUE) system for evaluating computer network-based learning courseware, or Web-based distance-education courseware. CLUE is an innovative evaluation system that combines computer-logging techniques with self-reporting methods used widely in the field of formative…

If evaluation's purpose is improving teaching rather than prescribing teaching effectiveness, then supervisors must find ways to communicate that purpose and to motivate teachers to seek improvement. This article reviews relevant literature, focusing on summative and formative evaluation, philosophical concepts espoused by neo-traditionalists and…

Argues that Americans can learn from the wide variety of types of assessment included in French national evaluations, from the way these exams are used formatively on a large scale to plan instruction and professional development (rather than to pass or fail children or to reward or punish teachers), and from the hazards of a single high stakes…

Demonstrates the role that formative research played in the development of one repeated format within "Square One TV," an educational television series about mathematics. Illustrates the value of the "CTW Model"--the collaborative production of educational programs by the Children's Television Workshop. (AEF)

Describes a half-semester course for incoming graduate teaching assistants that provided six weeks of discussion, six formative observations, and six peer reviews and culminated in a summative performance evaluation. The course was based on literature supporting the importance of social interaction in workplace learning. Provides results of…