This guide is intended to assist states and service delivery areas (SDAs) in addressing the new oversight responsibilities and opportunities stipulated by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) with respect to process evaluation. The first chapter provides an overview of the JTPA organizational system. Discussed next is the relationship among…

To assist textbook adoption committees in answering the questions that arise as they consider basal reading series, this paper provides a discussion of readability. Following a brief introduction, the second section of the paper offers a background discussion of what readability really means. In addition, this section looks at three factors to…

The progress of the indicators project of the U.S. Department of Education is reported as a follow-up to a 1985 Department of Education publication, "Indicators of Education Status and Trends," which attempted to identify those items that could be considered as significant indices of the health of education in the United States. In…

A nationwide process in the Netherlands is discussed in which a number of specific disciplines were concentrated in one or a few Dutch universities. The decisive roll of political arguments and consequences for future government and academic planning are addressed. Both universities and government believed that ongoing retrenchment could no longer…

A guide to mediation program planning is presented for college campuses. The concept of a college mediation program is considered, along with issues of needs, benefits, program focus, and goals. Mediation is discussed in the context of the overall field of alternative dispute resolution and is distinguished from other forms of conflict resolution.…

The development and current status of "special-action" admissions at the undergraduate level are considered for the University of California and California State University, and recommendations are offered for strengthening the special-action admissions process. Special-action admissions provides some flexibility in admitting students…

One in a series of issue papers commissioned by the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), this document presents a comparison of contemporary evaluation approaches for special education programs. The first section describes the two approaches to be compared: (1) traditional scientific inquiry which emphasizes quantitative methods;…

Reviews of 2,554 educational software programs by thirty reviewing sources were examined to compare the tendency of different review sources to give generally positive, negative, or neutral ratings. The reliability of language arts and reading software reviews was studied. Thirty-eight percent of the software programs were reviewed by two or more…

The Indiana Foreign Language Generic Competencies for Levels 1-4 define language-learning outcomes in terms of communicative competencies within generic cultural contexts. Nine cultural contexts (travel/transportation, the "world" of the target language, school and education, family and home, leisure time, meeting personal needs, world…

The purpose of this guide is to provide state and local Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) program administrators with an approach to developing meaningful and relevant negotiated performance standards that will serve as a management and evaluation tool. The guide is organized in four chapters. Chapter I provides background information on the…

This paper is part of an Air Force planning effort to develop a research, development, and applications program for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in three target areas: training, performance measurement, and job performance aiding. The paper is organized in five sections that (1) introduce the reader to AI and those subfields…

The process of performance evaluation of teachers and other school personnel should be conducted with their full knowledge and involvement. Due process procedures require that a teacher be fully informed of any negative appraisals by a superior, have an opportunity to discuss the problems, and receive guidance toward solutions. The following steps…

This document presents information to trainers already trained in the Registered Holistic scoring method. It has been developed to assist these trainers in training others in the procedures and the criteria of the new scoring method. The Registered Holistic scoring method was designed and field tested for the ninth grade writing sample component…

This handbook provides guidelines for organizing a math equivalency credit program and for establishing criteria for awarding math credit for math instruction given in a vocational program. The first two sections discuss the issue of awarding math credit for instruction obtained in the vocational classroom and how to use the guide. Addressed in…

The ease with which standardized test results and other objective measures can be used to compare the effectiveness of educational programs has led to an overemphasis on such measures among educators, the government, and the public alike. This overemphasis has led schools to ignore less easily measured but equally important objectives, to design…