The Center for Vocational Education is continuing its programatic research efforts to develop more effective procedures for identifying valid and necessary curriculum content. The occupational task survey report for the occupation of business data programer is a product resulting from this effort. The task inventory data summarized were collected…

Some educators are turning to the process of contingency management within a classroom as a short term, immediate motivator which can work for virtually every student, regardless of his/her final grade in the course. Contingency management consists of providing a set of alternatives from which those chosen by the student reward the students in…

This report describes an experimental solar heating system, complete with thermal storage and controls, that has met all the heating requirements of five detached classrooms of the Fauquier High School in Warrenton, Virginia. The objectives of the experiment were to (1) demonstrate that solar energy can be used to provide a substantial part of the…

This booklet presents the procedures and criteria of the tentative Child Development Associate (CDA) Consortium Assessment System, used to evaluate CDS candidates in winter, 1974-75. Under the assessment system, local assessment teams (consisting of the candidate to be assessed, the candidate's trainer, a parent-community representative, and a…

The module, part of a vocational teacher education curriculum unit, provides instruction in the establishment of criteria for student performance in vocational education programs. Establishing these overall criteria involves determining the points in time for performance assessment, the performance objectives to be achieved, and the level of…

A study was conducted to examine syntactical development in spontaneous written language of selected preschool, kindergarten and first grade children. The two major experimental questions were: (1) Will there be development towards greater complexity in the syntax of spontaneous writing and how should it be described? (2) What transformational…

The process of establishing and maintaining relations with a contract feeder is reviewed. Initial contact, reasons for the contact, contract negotiation, key people involved, and the ultimate tools of measurement are mentioned. Possible goals and objectives to be specified to a negotiating contractor are suggested. Items to be covered in the…

In this review of current practices it is observed that administrators are evaluated for two major purposes--(1) to provide a basis for school districts' decisions at the conclusion of the evaluation period, and (2) to provide feedback on performance to allow administrator improvement. A comparison is made of evaluation material from five school…

This study seeks to illuminate those characteristics of students which predict their performance in using evidence to test a hypothesis. The research is conceived as part of a larger investigative strategy for understanding the relationships among characteristics of students, characteristics of social studies thinking tasks, and characteristics of…

This book describes how the child acquires a linguistic system before he is capable of verbal utterances or has developed the ability to structure language in a meaningful way. The first chapter of the book contains a discussion of previous language development studies on learning the mother tongue and proposes a hypothesis of language development…

The scheme briefly delineated here is an attempt to solve three important personnel problems in school district administration. How does one (1) evaluate administrators in a decentralized system; (2) clarify and reconcile personal and organizational goals to achieve accountability; and (3) provide detailed feedback on the consequences of…

Accountability has at times seemed more a harbinger of conflict than a vehicle for improved student learning. While some argue that federal accountability measures have been only superficially utilized in many instances, federal mandates have probably done more to sensitize educators to accountability than any other stimulus. Different states have…

Boards of education and professional educators have been charged with the responsibility for being accountable for the educational dollars. This involves designing and utilizing a model of accountability that would focus on staff development whereby each individual is cognizant of his assignment, areas that need improvement, and assured assistance…

This paper explains the need for pluralism as a principle by which to bring reason and order to the complicated field of curriculum. Pluralism implies that a function of the curriculum specialist is to uncover the assumptions and analyze the arguments of curricular statements. In exemplifying such a process of analysis, the paper has shown that…

While most foreign language programs list communicative language use as a primary goal, classroom tests seldom reflect this objective but rather focus on discrete-point linguistic competence. The authors present a model of the communication process and point to the main task in constructing tests of communicative competence: devising simulated…