This report is the result of massive public input, five Governor's Summits, and several Board task forces. The research-based plan reflects a confluence of state legislation aimed at improving student achievement, and the Utah Performance Assessment System for Schools (U-PASS), the state's accountability measuring system. The competency-based…

For the past few years, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and the Coalition of Essential Schools have been investigating the digital portfolio--a software program that creates a multimedia collection of student work and aligns it with performance standards. Of five critical elements, school culture is the most crucial for making the…

Describes how authentic assessment instruments and qualitative methods in foundations of education courses helped preservice teachers understand the relationship between theory and practice. Reports students' positive experiences of real-world situations, collaboration, and retention of knowledge. (SK)

Describes Advanced Science for Kids (ASK), a multicultural approach to assessment and programming for a middle school advanced science program. ASK is designed to provide alternative approaches to identification and assessment, facilitate authentic instruction and assessment, and provide minority students with academic and social support as they…

Teachers are receiving mixed messages about assessment. Encouraged to use alternative assessment practices, they are expected to express a student's progress in a single letter grade. Interviews with eight urban middle school teachers participating in the QUASAR (Quantitative Understanding: Amplifying Student Achievement and Reasoning) Project…

Reviews 11 books that consider the politics of school reform. (MLF)

Electronic portfolios allow teachers to authentically assess student performance. Examines the creation and use of electronic portfolios and describes three electronic portfolios based on HyperCard that can be used in physical education classes to monitor student health fitness, sport skills, and other performance standards, and allow students to…

Reviews the state of the art in performance measures and assessment processes in program evaluation before the passage of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), and discusses difficulties in fitting these practices into the GPRA format. Presents a simple logic model for evaluating research programs. (SLD)

Examined the extent of implementation of the 1995-00 United Federation of Teachers-New York City contract agreement on annual teacher performance reviews, identifying factors impacting implementation. Survey and interview data indicate that few schools are implementing the performance review option, mainly due to lack of adequate training. Lack of…

Explored the claim that performance assessments foster a more positive motivational orientation for students than supplied-response assessments when used in the classroom. Fifth graders in three science classrooms were exposed to three types of assessment. Surveys investigated students' attitudes toward science, goal orientation, and cognitive…

Describes the Geographic Information System (GIS) which is capable of storing, manipulating, and displaying data allowing students to explore complex relationships through scientific inquiry. Explains applications of GIS in middle school classrooms and includes assessment strategies. (YDS)

Description of a management strategy for assessing performance goals called Job Task Systems Management (JTSM) focuses on a study of inspector jobs at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The adaptation of business planning strategies to the government sector is discussed, and a job and task analysis is described. (LRW)

Explores the emerging interface between computer technology and cognitive psychology for performance assessment in science education. Discussion includes interface theories and interface technologies and prototype projects for building an alternative assessment technology. (50 references) (KRN)

This article briefly describes research and authentic assessment and outlines methods for developing rubrics which offer a more authentic approach to assessment. It offers a rubric for assessing secondary students' original research, along with benchmarks showing examples for each criterion. It also suggests ways to translate rubric assessments…

Over 5,000 students participated in a study of the dimensionality and stability of the item parameter estimates of a mathematics performance assessment developed for the Quantitative Understanding: Amplifying Student Achievement and Reasoning (QUASAR) Project. Results demonstrate the test's dimensionality and illustrate ways to examine use of the…