The Title I/Chapter 1 Technical Assistance Centers (TACs) were originally created to provide assistance to state and local education agencies in implementing the Title I evaluation and reporting system. However, over a 10-year period, TAC role has changed significantly. Its service foci have evolved from providing evaluation assistance to helping…

Schools and universities in the United Kingdom are coming to accept performance appraisal as a fact of life. The first part of this paper discusses appraisal policies as "negotiated ambiguities." Ambiguous criteria concerning wording subject to misinterpretation has created reservations on the side of the National Union of Teachers. This…

In October 2002, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) contracted with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MRP) to help identify issues pertinent to the evaluation of Title I and to propose feasible evaluation design strategies. This design effort took its lead from two sources: (1) the Title I Independent Review Panel (IRP); and (2) a more…

The evaluator was contracted to determine whether the online or face-to-face course components met course participants' needs and increased their understanding and knowledge of policy development processes, and to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery strategies. In addition, the course evaluator was asked to look at the…

In this document we discuss 19 university league tables and ranking systems from around the world. Sixteen of these are "national" league tables collected from ten countries (Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States); three are "international" or…

Standardized testing plays an increasingly important role in the lives of today's students and educators. The U.S. No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires assessment in math and literacy in grades 3-8 and 10 and, as of 2007-08, in science once in grades 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12. Based on National Center for Education Statistics enrollment projections,…

In their constant groping toward achievement standards, the high schools of this country have developed what is known as "cooperative testing." This development is not recent. Cooperative testing dates back further than the standardized testing movement itself. For instance, it has been customary for about 50 years in New York and in…

Advocates standards-based teacher assessment linked with school reform as a system for building the capacity of elementary teachers. Suggests that linking teaching standards with student standards focuses and coordinates state reforms to address knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by teachers to enhance student learning. Examines a program in…

Describes the development of a tool, FACT (Formative Automated Computer Testing), to formatively assess information technology skills of college students in the United Kingdom. Topics include word processing competency; tests designed by tutors and delivered via a network; and results of an evaluation that showed students preferred automated…

Research in bilingual education remains underdeveloped, and despite 20 years of classroom experience, curricular and methodological refinements, and gains in student achievement, there is continued skepticism about its effectiveness. Contends there has been overreliance on simplistic and ill-designed evaluation research and urges instead basic…

Discussion of the use of microcomputers in education focuses on the use of microcomputers for evaluation purposes. A study that collected performance data on both college students and the evaluation instrument is described, reliability and validity of the test are discussed, and the use of microcomputers to redesign instructional systems is…

An overview of the evaluation issues associated with contraceptive social marketing programs is provided. Methodologies covered include survey techniques, cost-effectiveness analyses, retail audits of sales data, time series analysis, nested logit analysis, and discriminant analysis. (TJH)

Reports on an analysis of national assessment data on the academic achievement of 6,423 English and Welsh second-grade students. Uses multilevel modeling to explore the relationship between academic attainment and background variables. Finds a relationship between test scores and nursery school education. (CFR)

Discusses the use of holistic scoring in the introductory college psychology course. Presents data showing the reliability, validity, and efficiency of the holistic scoring of students' written work by teaching assistants. Argues that holistic scoring is a high quality, low cost approach to scoring written work in large classes. (SG)

Maintains that comparison of students' sketch maps at the beginning and end of the year can provide information on how student's representations of the world changes. Describes a study from the California International Studies Project (CISP) that provides an easy method for sorting and summarizing sketch map data. Illustrates the method with…