One of nine competency-based training modules for personnel preparation in early childhood special education, this guide focuses on the facilitation of transition services for young children. All modules are adaptable for use with a general audience, direct service personnel, or administrators and are based on the following principles:…

This paper reports on a follow-up survey of alumni (N=104) who had pursued degrees through the Education Department at Castleton State College (VT). The questionnaire was concerned with alumni perceptions regarding the attainment of outcome-based competencies. The quantitative data reported respondents' knowledge about subject matter and the…

Information is provided concerning the complexity of developing competency-based programs for members of service professions, such as teachers and media specialists, when there is little agreement about the qualifications and the behaviors required of the beginning professional. Section 1 discusses the qualities of a competent professional. Key…

Four traditions of reform in 20th century U.S. teacher education are described: academic, social efficiency, developmentalist, and social reconstructionist. Each tradition is illustrated with examples from both early and contemporary teacher education programs. Following the presentation of the reform traditions, the heuristic value of the…

The responsibility for ensuring that beginning teachers are competent to teach in the nation's classrooms should be that of teacher education institutions, according to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). Teacher education institutions must employ an assessment system that: (1) assesses specific competencies as…

This paper: (1) describes the recently implemented Texas plan for school reform; (2) delineates a major component of Texas reform, the career ladder. In response to a nationwide call for raised educational standards, Texas passed HB 72, a comprehensive education bill implementing a comprehensive "career ladder" model for the testing,…

The pre- and post-1985 Florida Teacher Certification Examination (FTCE) scores of black first-time test takers (BFTTs) from a historically black institution (N=130) were compared on the four subtests of the test (62 candidates took the pre-1985 and 68 took the post-1985). In addition, institution results were compared with the scores of all state…

Results of a 1983 survey of Texas foreign language teachers reveal their views and concerns about a new state law requiring all prospective language teachers to pass an oral proficiency interview for certification beginning in 1986. Of the 142 respondents, most were Spanish teachers, high school teachers, and teachers with more than 10 years…

The performance of 20 experienced elementary and secondary school teachers was measured and compared with similar data collected about 336 student teachers at the University of Toledo (Ohio). The two observation inventories used were the Classroom Observations Keyed for Effectiveness Research (COKER) and the Teacher Performance Assessment…

This module, one in a series of performance-based teacher education learning packages, focuses on a specific skill that vocational educators need to be successful in the area of instructional execution. The purpose of the module is to give the teacher understanding of the characteristics of and techniques involved in effective oral questioning and…

Students enrolled in classes which stressed learning theory and human development served as subjects in an investigation of the predictive power of observation scores compared to more traditional predictors such as grade point average and ACT scores. A stepwise discriminant analysis was employed, using the BMDP7B program on the Sperry 1100 Univac,…

One of a series of performance-based teacher education learning packages focusing upon specific professional competencies of vocational teachers, this learning module deals with assisting students in developing self-discipline. It consists of an introduction and four learning experiences. The first learning experience covers the concepts of and…

A research program has been initiated at Texas A&M University College of Education to collect, analyze, and interpret data from a diagnostic prescriptive teacher preparation program. The project was undertaken to create a substantial data file containing multiple measures of learner attainment information that will provide alternatives for…

This handbook provides assistance with developing evaluation instruments for inservice teacher education components in the Pasco County School District. Its purpose is to facilitate compliance with 1983 Florida legislation requiring the reporting of inservice teacher education attainment data based on measurable objectives. The handbook contains…

This monograph reports a continued effort at the Univeristy of Toledo to conduct research and evaluation of an operational, competency-based teacher education (CBTE) program. The University of Toledo embarked on a measurement and evaluation effort for its CBTE program in 1975. An initial report was released in May 1980, and a second report was…