Over the last several years, state boards of education have become increasingly engaged in the development of content and performance standards and the assessments that will accompany them. This guidebook provides information on the move toward standards-based education. Part 1 provides a brief historical overview that places the standards…

Using data collected by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) through its literacy assessment of young adults, this study addressed the question of whether adult patterns of reading activity related to demonstrated proficiencies. Five reading patterns were developed that represent various combinations of high and low activity with…

This collection of articles is the third in a series on assessment produced by Finger Lakes Community College (New York). It deals with classroom assessment as an ongoing process that can be of significant value to teachers as well as to students. Assessment at the college and assessment in the classroom in general are explored. Articles include:…

Authentic assessment differs from traditional paper-and-pencil assessment in that it is designed to reflect students'"real world" experience. Authentic assessments may assume a variety of forms (including demonstrations, oral interviews/presentations, simulations, self-assessments, and peer/instructor evaluations); however, their focus is always…

Recent studies indicate that Americans have lost faith in public schools. Polls trace a steady decline of confidence in the educational system, a decline extending over the past two decades. The general trend masks two anomalies, however. First, several indicators associated with increased confidence in the schools are on the rise--students…

Many people believe that future reforms of education should focus on the primary mission of elementary and secondary schools and that these schools must be held more accountable for the academic performance of their students. This book brings together researchers from various disciplines--most notably economics, educational policy and management,…

If rewards are to be used as a school-reform tool, their formats must be more closely tailored to the organizational characteristics of schools and to the purpose of improving teaching and learning. This paper describes lessons learned from Kentucky's collective incentive system, the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS). The…

Based on a longer report with the same title, this digest summarizes current efforts to increase the quality of college teaching. The report uses a model that views strategies for improving instruction as helping motivate individual faculty members to improve their teaching by actively changing (and maintaining) certain of their instructional…

This study examined the academic engaged time of six students with low incidence disabilities who were enrolled in general elementary classrooms. These students participated in regular classes for reading or math, and at least one other subject area. The academic engaged time of these students was compared to that of six students without…

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…

How well a combination of junior/senior undergraduate grade point average (GPA), scores on the Miller Analogies Test (MAT), and writing sample scores can predict success for students seeking a Master's degree in education was studied. Success was determined for the study by the student's graduate GPA and whether or not the student graduated from…

The study described in this paper is part of an effort to improve understanding of the science assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). It involved the coding of all the items in the 1996 NAEP science assessments, which included 45 blocks (15 each for grades 4, 8, and 12) and over 500 items. Each of the approximately…

Not all schools and teachers maintain uniformly high expectations for all students. Evidence suggests that schools can improve student learning by encouraging teachers and students to set their sights high. This digest synthesizes recent research about teachers' expectations and the ways in which teachers' expectations affect student performance;…

This handbook assists educators in improving the links among civic education curriculum, instruction, and assessment. First-person accounts detailing teachers' thoughts present a basis for tracing the evolution of assessment tasks and rubrics for evaluation. Samples of student work are provided to stimulate thinking and discussion. Activities for…