Provides of examples of performance-based assessments in three categories: (1) projects; (2) performances; and (3) question strategy sessions. Describes a typical performance-based assessment project including setting up the project, peer evaluation, the class presentation, and the test used. (CFR)

Profiles four middle school teachers maintaining early chamber music programs. The teachers advise varying degrees of musical competency before students begin the program, but all of them caution against starting too soon. They also stress the importance of purchasing early music scores and establishing rehearsal times. (MJP)

Profiles Wynton Marsalis and discusses his work with children and music. Describes the motivation behind, and development of, the Public Broadcasting System's four-part special "Marsalis on Music." Marsalis discusses his early exposure to music and the influence of his parents. (MJP)

Identifies trends in 1994 professional education literature, including school reform, national standards, school choice and vouchers, charter schools, outcome-based education and performance assessment, religious right's political gains, school safety, violence, conflict mediation, finance, adolescents and children at risk, vocational education,…

College instruction appears to be facing a change in rules, paralleling and influenced by such "megatrends" as Total Quality Management, interest in tapping intrinsic motivation, service learning, and authentic assessment. External pressure for educational excellence, accountability, improved community, self-fulfillment, and access to information…

A large-group (110 students) pharmaceutics course, designed to use small-group case-based problem solving to address pharmaceutical manufacturing problems, is described; and student response to the course is examined. The 11 case studies used in the curriculum are summarized. The peer evaluation form is included. (MSE)

Discusses issues related to standardized testing and a national art curriculum. Maintains that cultural diversity among students makes valid and fair assessment difficult. Argues that teachers should be trained in the use of authentic assessment methods. (CFR)

A local area network provided 32 seventh-grade remedial or learning-disabled students and their teachers with access to complete student performance records. Analysis indicated that system use by students and teachers was high and was a positive experience. A positive correlation was obtained between student use and completion of academic tasks.…

Toronto General Hospital (Canada) has developed a medical faculty recognition and reward program including a system to collect and evaluate feedback from trainees and administrators, an annual awards event, three categories of hospitalwide award (educational administration, program development, extraordinary contribution), and departmental student…

A review of literature on evaluation of teaching in higher education focuses on factors in faculty resistance to evaluation of their teaching and on outside forces that may be prompting change in this area. Also describes the nature of comprehensive teaching evaluation programs, including various assessment methods, and offers a model for such…

The Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference on Research in Medical Education (Washington, DC, October 25-27, 1999) contain 43 research papers on innovative curricula, diagnostic reasoning, student evaluations of faculty, practicing physicians, prediction, licensing examinations, admissions, faculty development, managed care, technology-enhanced…

Discusses the causes for the recent decline in higher education quality in sub-Saharan Africa and possible strategies for improvement, including selective admission to the universities, teacher training programs for faculty, student evaluation of faculty, faculty participation in instructional materials development, improvement of graduate study,…

This article reports on two studies that were conducted to determine whether (a) total enterprise simulations are suitable for assessing business skills and (b) the tournament concept can be effectively applied to such simulations. The first study involved 141 senior business students; the second, 74. The results are consistently favorable on both…

A feminist action research team, which consisted of a science educator, an English-language learner (ELL) educator, a first-year science teacher, and a graduate assistant, set a goal to work together to explore the process a beginning teacher goes through to establish a classroom conducive to the needs of middle-level ELL learners. The guiding…

This study investigated the performance of 13 graduate students' collaborative efforts toward a group research project in an Instructional Analysis, Design, and Evaluation online course. Gaps between course expectations from the instructor and student collaborative performance were identified through the review of the team agreement, the use of…