In the last decades, a number of states have passed legislation identifying the conditions under which state officials can and should intervene in the operation of school districts. This paper uses a grounded qualitative approach to develop a lexicon of concepts and a framework for comparing intervention laws across states. The paper analyzes the…

The Jersey City (New Jersey) Public Schools became the first school district in the United States to be taken over and fully operated by a state agency on October 4, 1989. This paper presents findings of a study that examined the first 2 years during which the takeover was implemented, with a focus on the internal and external forces that affected…

The results of a small research project that studied the effect computer administration has on student performance for writing or essay tests are presented. The introduction of computer-administered tests has raised concern about the equivalence of scores generated by computer versus paper-and-pencil test versions. For this study a sample of…

In 1990 the Kentucky legislature passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). The law mandates the use of performance-based assessments, including portfolios in mathematics and writing. This paper presents findings of a case study of a fourth-grade classroom teacher's experiences in implementing instructional changes to help students produce…

The practicum experience in the field of recreation and leisure studies is an important aspect of a student's preparation for the field of recreation and leisure services. This workbook covers the requirements for everyone involved in the practicum experience: student, agency, agency supervisor, college/university, director of field placement, and…

The Education Improvement Act (EIA) was passed in Tennessee in 1992. It established the Basic Education Program (BEP) as the funding formula used to provide adequate, equitable, and sustainable school funding. The 1997 master plan is consistent with the national Goals 2000 legislation and addresses each of the eight national goals. The plan…

This report provides an overview of the use of functional assessment in the evaluation of individuals with psychiatric disabilities. It begins by discussing the difficulties with traditional forms of assessment and the development of functional assessment, particularly in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation. The need to not rely on any single…

This paper attempts to summarize the conclusions of the major reviews of the literature on student ratings of teaching. It is an update of a paper by the same name published as IDEA Paper No. 20 from the Center for Faculty Evaluation and Development in 1988. Viewing student ratings as data rather than evaluations may help to put them in proper…

This document consists of three papers presented at a symposium on transfer of training moderated by Gene Roth at the 1996 conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD). "Validation of a Transfer Climate Instrument" (Reid A. Bates et al.) reports a study that attempted to validate Rouiller and Goldstein's (1993) eight-factor…

This document contains three papers presented at a symposium on evaluation systems in human resource development (HRD) moderated by Jerry Gilley at the 1996 conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development. "PLS [Performance-Learning-Satisfaction] Evaluation System: Sales Communication Case Study" (Richard A. Swanson, Timothy R.…

This paper discusses the implications for educational reform in the United States of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comparative study of performance standards. To provide some context for the reader, the paper briefly reprises major shifts in the intellectual underpinnings of U.S. educational reform and reports on…

The implementation of the Dallas (Texas) Public Schools 1995-96 Title I PK-2 reading and language arts portfolio entailed monitoring and data collection to determine the student outcomes and the technical quality of the instrument. A total of 2,001 portfolios were reviewed for prekindergarten through grade 2. The components were generally in place…

This book presents an approach that organizes the principles and processes of an emerging human resource development (HRD) paradigm requiring training to be everyone's business. Chapter 1 describes the paradigm and presents a practical approach for applying it. Chapter 2 draws a picture of highly effective training (HET), focusing particularly on…

This book describes the professional and personal challenges facing community college presidents in the performance of their job, and includes eight personal essays. An introduction explores the personal choices involved in becoming and functioning as a community college president, and includes the essay "The Moving President: Changing…

Comparative results are presented for procedures recently appearing in literature related to standard setting on the National Assessment of Educational Progress--the paper selection method and the contrasting group method. For this comparison, a probabilistic model with normal distribution of performance and a six-point scale were assumed. The…