A central concern of Joseph Milner's February 1991 "Kappan" article critiquing the North Carolina Teacher Performance Assessment Instrument is that teacher evaluation will drive teaching. He errs in confusing essential skills with basic skills, ignoring all teacher evaluation's purposes except instructional improvement, and claiming the…

Describes the pay-for-performance/pay-for-knowledge system implemented by Federal Express and the training for employees who deal with the public. The two major components of the program are job-knowledge testing and interactive videodisc instruction. (JOW)

After a 9-week training course, 102 manager trainees in a fast-food chain were assigned to restaurants. Those assigned to units having positive organizational transfer climate (measured by situational cues and consequences) were rated as better performers. Climate affected the degree to which learned behavior was transferred to the actual job. (SK)

Ratings by 77 associate degree nursing graduates and 18 faculty were followed up after six months with responses from 33 graduates and seven employers. Graduates rated themselves higher in job performance than did faculty and employers. They gave themselves lower scores on planning and evaluation after six months than they had at graduation. (SK)

Offers a case study describing how the rhetorical expertise of a young woman (at the lowest professional level in a male-dominated bureaucratic organization) gave her the power to revise the processes by which her organization did its work, to rewrite the job descriptions of the managers within the organization, and to create a unique role for…

Investigates effects of skill flexibility on Israeli secondary teachers' work attitudes and job performance. Both role and functional flexibility were associated with improved teachers' work performance; role flexibility is linked to high organizational commitment and low powerlessness. Principals appreciate skill flexibility, but organizational…

Professional standards for school principals typically describe an ideal performance in a generalized context. This article describes an alternative method of developing a standards framework, combining qualitative vignettes with probabilistic measurement techniques to provide essential or ideal performance qualities with contextually rich…

Investigated the effect of graduate education on job performance, using a database of U.S. Navy officers, focusing on supervisor ratings and promotion probabilities. Among those eligible for promotion to grade 4 (the up-or-out point), those with any graduate degree are more likely to be promoted. (25 references) (MLH)

Results of a survey examining Missouri superintendents' perceptions of successful beginning principals, based on ratings on six Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium standards, were compared with another study rating unsuccessful Indiana principals by the same standards. School culture, instructional program, and management are essential…

The humanistic aspects of work--especially human relations, negotiation, and adaptability skills--are crucial to job performance. Therefore, these skills must be integrated into workforce education. (SK)

Four contributors to this column, including two administrators, a support staff member, and an educator responsible for training technical assistants, discuss training and recognition programs for support staff, with particular emphasis on empowerment strategies that have proven effective. (AEF)

Examines 94 Israeli elementary school principals's work behavior, using a structured observation technique. Principals exhibited certain work characteristics (brevity, variety, fragmentation) supported in other research. They differed from conventional job descriptions in demonstrating internally oriented social (but not political) inclinations,…

Presents a systems model of the development of work adjustment that counselors working in federally mandated one-stop career centers can use to conceptualize, assess, and facilitate consumers' work adjustment. The vectors comprising work adjustment are work role behavior, task performance, and worker satisfaction. Suggests influences on and…

Explores theoretical and measurement issues that have impeded age norm studies. Conducts a study of age norms using data from three work organizations. Results show that age norms can be measured across organizations; sharing of age norms increases with organization stability; and age norms influence behavior and are social, not individual,…

A study evaluated a prework assignment for predicting work-task preferences among three adults with severe multiple disabilities prior to supported employment. The assessment compared worker selections from pairs of work tasks drawn from their future job duties. The assessment accurately predicted tasks that the workers preferred to work on.…