The 1990 Beating the Odds (BTO) Summer School was an intensive instructional, counseling, and guidance program sponsored by the Houston (Texas) Independent School District for a group of at-risk students in grades 5-9. The program was designed to provide a supportive and nurturing learning environment in which the academic and sociopsychological…

In the fall of 1981 Kendall Demonstration Elementary School issued to its teachers new curriculum guides in four areas: Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics. In Language Arts the implementation was more comprehensive than in the other areas. This report describes curriculum evaluation activities conducted at Kendall during…

One in a series of reports on a gifted program jointly formed by three school systems in Alberta, Canada, this document presents information about the gifted and talented program in the Calgary school system, the largest of the three districts. The program in Calgary consists of education assistance services, which help schools develop programs…

This guide is intended to serve as a tool for use in examining Michigan's existing job placement program. The job placement status study and planning process outlined in the handbook and the related materials presented have been coordinated with other assessment and planning instruments currently in use by vocational educators in Michigan. The…

This paper describes the Denver public schools' Standards of Excellence Program, a research-based means of developing and implementing school improvements while reinforcing existing practices characteristic of effective schools. Researchers have identified four indicators of school effectiveness that can be observed, measured, controlled, and…

The Value Added Program for assessing undergraduate education at Northeast Missouri State University is described. The program is in its 12th year and has as its driving force a comprehensive student data base that includes measures of individual student performance at the entering freshman level and at the end of the sophomore year, as well as…

This project's main objective was to field test competency-based vocational education (CBVE) student learning guides developed during 1979-1981 at Ridge Vocational-Technical Center (RVTC) (Florida). The learning guides were for six programs: clerical occupations, cosmetology, heavy duty truck/bus mechanics, industrial electricity, masonry, and…

This report highlights major issues, techniques, and directions in the evaluation of public school teachers. The paper begins by setting a perspective on the process of, and needs for, evaluation. The main body of the report is devoted to a summary and critique of various teacher evaluation methods. A discussion is given of the efficacy of, and…

The Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--developed a handbook for a unit on "floating and sinking". The handbook contains information about ideas children and scientists have about the topic and several investigations and projects designed to help teachers move children gradually from intuitive explanations toward those which…

The Instructional Systems Design (ISD) process was applied to a communication skills training project for the New York City Police Department. The purpose of the application was to reduce the number of unnecessary civilian complaints accumulated by police officers. The project passed through the five phases of ISD: analysis, design, development,…

Inconsistencies develop in the educational system both because teachers receive "mixed signals" and because theory and practice become discrepant, a situation which creates dilemmas in language assessment. Some current dilemmas include: (1) the difficulty in determining whether teacher-made and standardized tests measure what they are supposed to;…

Math Works is the fifth grade component of the "Mathematics for the '80s" project, a series of 28 video programs and related material developed by a consortium of state and provincial education and television agencies. A formative evaluation of Math Works programs (9 and 25) was conducted to assess the instructional effectiveness and general…

The primary goal of this study was to identify curricular experiences and teacher behaviors encouraging preschool children to meaningfully use written language. A second goal was to investigate children's growth in literacy in the context of a preschool classroom. The study was conducted over a 5-month period among 8 Head Start and 8…

A leader's guide for conducting a workshop on managing bilingual program evaluations is presented as part of the Bilingual Evaluation Technical Assistance (BETA) project. After examining how to organize the workshop, the following aids are presented: a preworkshop preparation checklist, a sample room arrangement diagram, a workshop time schedule,…

The Program Assistance and Approval System (PAAS) is an attempt to fulfill the needs of the 1978 Louisiana Educational Accountability Act regarding improvements in schools and/or educational programs. The system is designed as an onsite review to (1) determine the degree of implementation of program standards, (2) assess areas of need, and (3)…