Criterion referenced measurement is one method which can be utilized to evaluate the learner's achievement of the objectives of continuing education programs and an invaluable mechanism whereby program effectiveness can be evaluated. How to set up an instructional module using a criterion referenced base (subject matter, objectives, test…

Article examined how the impetus of competency based education (CBE) can be used to advantage by school districts for better teaching performance. (Author/RK)

Designing a training course to be more efficient will simultaneously reduce the amount of trainee time as well as increase its impact on job performance. (Available from American Management Associations, Subscription Services, Box 319, Saranac Lake, NY 12983; $3.25 single copy.) (MLF)

Competency testing is only one component of competency-based education (CBE); the others are: educational objectives, instructional process, remedial instruction, and program evaluation/reconceptualization. To implement only competency testing may result in disillusionment with the entire concept of CBE, which seeks to improve programs, not fail…

Based on the results of past studies, neither a wholly revised curriculum plan nor a new scheme of school organization is sufficient for successful implementation of proposed reforms. Each must be coupled with a strategy for change built on knowledge of the schools and in collaboration with them. (Author/EB)

While minimum competency testing may cause education to become less pluralistic, its effect will weigh most heavily upon those who fail to pass the tests. Because such testing does nothing to improve teaching or learning, one result will be to hold the student responsible for the educational system's failure. (Author/GC)

Defines skills used in the reasoning process: problem solving, classification and organization, making reasoned judgments, and researching a subject. Lists Vermont's basic competencies in reasoning and notes that teachers and the community must accept the competencies of reasoning as legitimate educational concerns. (KC)

Florida's individualized competency-based vocational education program stresses variety in learning experiences to accommodate individual student differences in learning. The author describes sequence of instruction and techniques to help the teacher facilitate learning. (MF)

Discusses the general policy considerations that will bear on a court's willingness to decide issues of educational negligence (malpractice) and sets forth alternative legal theories that could support such a cause of action and analyzes their relative probabilities of success. Available from Northwestern University School of Law, Chicago,…

Described is an in-service training program for faculty of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science which was designed to help faculty members implement a new curriculum, focused on competency-based objectives. An overview of workshop activities and an assessment of the results are included. (JMD)

Two baccalaureate-level programs that sought to make their educational outcomes explicit within competency-based education (CBE) are compared. The CBE programs in social work, the learning contracts involved, and assessment techniques are described for programs at the University of Montana and the University of Georgia.

Discusses a study to compare effects of two teaching techniques (lecture-discussion and performance-based) on attitude and knowledge level of students in two 11th grade American history classes. Findings indicate that a combination of the two methods of instruction is the best approach to teaching. (Author/DB)

Suggests sources of information on minimum competencies and minimal competency testing, including publications and conference proceedings, policy statements from professional organizations, and resource lists available from various organizations. (MKM)

An account of the Business and Office Education Division's (at the annual vocational convention) action planning sessions that involved business educators, teachers, and students in probing and reporting on nineteen issues of concern to their field. A verbatim report of one group is included to demonstrate their systematic approach to action…