Four competency catalogs of tasks for industrial arts programs are presented. These include catalogs in Exploring Technology, Modern Industry, Construction, and Manufacturing. The purpose of each catalog is to establish a basis for program content selection and criterion levels from which one may measure to see if individual learners have achieved…

Over the past few years, several complicated innovations, such as mainstreaming and minimal competency testing, have confronted teachers in addition to their usual responsibilities. In order to facilitate the teachers' implementation of such changes, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) was developed, using the teacher and the innovation as…

Focusing on assessment centers, this chapter is one of seven in a report that examines the assessment of occupational competence. Assessment centers are presented first in a historical context (their origins in personality theory), through which their evolution is traced and examined. What follows is a description of current assessment center…

This document is one of ten curriculum guides developed by the Nevada Competency-Based Adult High School Diploma (CBAHSD) Project. This curriculum guide on mathematics is divided into three topics. The topics included are Problem Solving, Computation, and Geometry and Measurement. Competency statements and performance indicators are provided for…

Achieving equality and quality in schooling is the greatest educational need of the 1980s. Three state and federal actions are necessary to facilitate this. They are: (1) an acknowledgement of the direct connection between education and employment; (2) a specification of performance levels by high school students in life competencies; and (3) a…

Guidelines are provided to assist New Jersey local school districts in improving and strengthening their graduation policies in accordance with the new law and regulations. Basic skills proficiency requirements have been enacted in Chapter 241, Laws of 1979. This law requires that students successfully pass tests in reading, writing and…

Instructional guidelines for grade 3 objectives being tested by the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS) are presented. The guidelines are designed to be helpful to primary grade teachers in clarifying expectations regarding the TABS tests. Looking at the grade 3 basic skill descriptions will indicate what students in kindergarten through grade…

An analysis of the assessment results and general findings of a statewide assessment in reading conducted in Hawaii in 1975 is presented in this report. Chapters provide a perspective on the assessment program, the preparation of the statewide assessment, the methodology used, the procedures for data analysis, and the results and findings of…

The Degrees of Reading Power Test was developed to address some existing problems in testing comprehension. The test design reflects the need to consider problems of passage dependency, difficulty of questions, tests for continuous text, and sensitivity to gains. It emphasizes a set of response options controlled for familiarity, a text that is…

This final report describes a coordinated dissemination program that was developed to help provide educational information to the teaching personnel of the Puerto Rico Department of Education. Objectives, problems, accomplishments, and recommendations are included; appendices provide the program's budget, the questionnaire used to assess the needs…

A study was designed to identify highly teachable composing skills that have a strong statistical relationship with composition quality across various grade levels. Sample compositions were randomly selected from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (1972). A total of 750 compositions written by 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old-students (250…

In the 1980s, equity concerns will come into conflict with efficiency concerns in school financing. This paper attempts to trace the changing nature of these concerns during the 1970s and to suggest trends for education financing in the 1980s. The first section discusses equity issues related to state school finance reforms and suggests that…

One provision of the Ryan Act, a legislative move intended to improve teacher training programs in California, was the requirement that all teacher candidates be examined for competence in both speaking and oral reading. To ascertain how shools of higher education across that state were dealing with this provision, a questionnaire was sent to 38…

This conference on competency based mathematics education was held in response to inquiries from mathematics teachers, curriculum directors, principals, and district administrators. Topics include: (1) What is competency based education; (2) The status of competency based education; (3) The process for developing a system of competency based…

The Nebraska Assessment Battery of Essential Learning Skills (N-ABELS) is a goal-oriented instrument with an evaluation component providing a basis for determining acquisition of twelve skills defined as learning goals. Each goal is stated in terms of an acceptable performance standard which clearly describes what the student must do. The skills…