Guidelines and implementation options for a program to evaluate the outcomes of collegiate education in New Jersey are discussed. A good program must seek to: (1) maintain public confidence; (2) nuture institutional autonomy and individual diversity; and (3) stimulate educational excellence. College outcomes that the program should cover are:…

This paper reports data from a program of research examining how teachers learn the practical, professional knowledge of teaching. Data collection focused on interviews with teachers immediately following a period of classroom observation. Interviews were spaced at monthly intervals when possible. The 15 participants included teachers in training,…

The curriculum content of elementary and secondary school social studies is discussed as it relates to the assessment of social studies learning. In addition, recommendations are made for future efforts in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The social studies curriculum involves both factual learning and concept learning.…

The Infant Care Survey (ICS) was developed to measure new mothers' confidence in their knowledge and skills regarding the care of babies under one year of age. One potential use of this test would be the identification of groups at high risk for health problems or for avoiding medical care. Self-efficacy was an important construct in the…

A survey of 135 Pennsylvania regular classroom teachers (kindergarten through grade 8) examined their understanding of learning disabilities (LD) and the degree to which they felt prepared to work with LD students. The survey sought information on: (1) teacher preparation, knowledge, and experience related to identifying and working with LD…

An analysis of science teacher's knowledge of specific biology and physics topics and the effects of this knowledge on their planning for instruction and on simulated teaching are discussed in this report. Six experienced secondary school teachers participated in the study. Each teacher's knowledge of a biology topic and a physics topic was…

A study tested the hypothesis that highly unrepresentative news stories about foreign nations would have a more damaging effect on the accuracy of inferences formed by United States audiences if the stories concerned developing countries than if they were about developed nations. Subjects, 76 college students, answered questions concerning a…

Four hundred twenty-six elementary, middle and high school teachers from the Albuquerque (New Mexico) Public Schools participated in a four-day staff development program in Effective Teaching Training, in January, 1986. This report evaluates that program in terms of: (1) effectiveness of staff development as defined in current research; (2)…

The content validity of the National Teacher Examinations (NTE) Core Battery tests of communications skills, general knowledge, and professional knowledge was examined to determine whether this commercially available test was suitable for initial teacher certification in Idaho. Focus was on recommending adoption scores (cut scores) to the State…

With the use of verbal report strategies, a study was conducted to examine (1) the types of comprehension strategies readers use to process familiar and less familiar texts and (2) the differential use of think aloud strategies by average and below average readers. Subjects were 15 tenth grade male students in upstate New York. Two weeks prior to…

A survey was conducted with 166 undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education and developmental reading classes to determine student background knowledge in three major areas: study and coping skills; current events, geography, and history; and general vocabulary. Among the findings were the following: (1) Students in both groups spent more…

Procedures for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students in mathematics and citizenship/social studies are outlined. An overview of NAEP's operation is followed by descriptions of the formulation of mathematics and citizenship/social studies objectives, development and field testing of…

The development of economic reasoning in young children is examined from the theoretical perspective of Piaget's work on cognitive development. To determine a possible correlation between grade level and the type of reasoning children use to approach economic problems, 70 urban children, preschool through grade 3, answered questions which measured…

What users of student ratings of instruction know about ratings and what they need to know to make valid and reliable use of ratings data were studied. An item bank of 153 multiple-choice items was developed from sources of information about student ratings. The full item bank had five subsets: (1) knowledge of ratings concepts; (2) knowledge of…

The impact of 2-week summer workshops and weekend reunions on college faculty who participated in the Stanford Program for Faculty Renewal was assessed using a questionnaire completed by 123 workshop participants, workshop and reunion observations, and interviews with 18 persons at 10 campuses. About two-thirds of the respondents were associate or…