Since the passage of the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (NCLB), the evidence that it is working has continued to grow. Because of this law, teachers and parents are getting the information and help they need to help every child reach his or her best in school--and as a result, student achievement is rising across America. While…

Quality is fast becoming a policy priority in states and localities around the country. As a result, formal and informal networks of youth organizations are seeking and developing strategies to help them assess and improve performance. This report takes a close look at efforts underway in three networks and provides a preliminary framework for…

The Pittsburgh Public School District asked the RAND Corporation to monitor the first year's implementation (2006-2007) of Excellence for All (EFA) and provide feedback to district staff, the board, and other stakeholders. The Pittsburgh Public School District leadership developed EFA with the aim of increasing student achievement by improving…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe development of a component in a management principles course to develop university students' virtual team skills. There were several challenges in creating and implementing this new component. The paper aims to describe how these challenges were addressed and discusses outcomes associated with this…

This article addresses a pervasive need in the area of videoconference-supported distance language learning: task design. On the basis of Chapelle's (2001) criteria for CALL task appropriateness, this article proposes a set of criteria for evaluating videoconferencing-based tasks which examine such aspects of a task as practicality,…

Background: Four elementary (primary) school students with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI) who used augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) aids were selected to take part in an intensive, 4-week summer intervention program. The program was designed to explore effective approaches, content and contexts for supporting…

The school district superintendent plays a critical role in the education of America's students. This guidebook asserts that districts are not being well served by their present systems for evaluating superintendents. It outlines some of the problems and deficiencies in current evaluation practice and offers professionally based leads for…

This handbook for superintendent performance evaluation contains information for boards of education as they institute or improve their evaluation system. The handbook answers questions involved in operationalizing, implementing, and evaluating a superintendent-evaluation system. The information was developed from research on superintendent…

An integrated system is needed to measure multiple attributes of effective teaching. The use of portfolios holds particular promise for this type of assessment. This paper describes how portfolios can be used in the evaluation of student teaching by evaluating management, creativity, organization, and effectiveness. Learning to teach is a…

Two pilot telecourses were offered in fall 1991 at Rochester Institute of Technology and Gallaudet University. The course "Black Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century" was taught by a Rochester faculty member with a Gallaudet teacher as resource or co-teacher. The other course, "Mass Media and Deaf History," was taught from…

Horizontal teacher evaluation increases understanding of teaching through the critical examination of educational goals and classroom practices. This examination includes teachers' classroom observations of one another coupled with in-depth teacher conversations or dialogue about teaching aims and practices. A qualitative case study of a…

The Office of Program Evaluation (OPE) of the Austin Independent School District (Texas) (AISD) is charged with evaluating federally, locally, and state funded programs in the AISD. OPE staff carry out mandated reporting for federal and state grants and are increasingly involved in formative evaluations designed for program improvement and…

This paper presents a model for systematic instructional design that includes mental model analysis together with the procedures used in developing computer-based instructional materials in the area of statistical hypothesis testing. The instructional design model is based on the premise that the objective for learning is to achieve expert-like…

Evaluation of foreign languages in the elementary school (FLES) programs is needed to provide feedback (descriptive data about a school's offerings) and accountability (program accomplishments). Thorough program evaluation verifies both a district's thoughtful, written philosophy of foreign language education and local goals. Some FLES program…

The Networked Classroom was implemented by the Southern Interior Telecommunications Project (SITP) to provide computer mediated communication (CMC) to teachers and students in the southern region of British Columbia. The Networked Classroom uses telecommunication networks to link teachers and students from different locations, to support their…