This document contains California's guidelines for serving students with severe orthopedic impairments in the public schools. Elements characteristic of well-designed programs are described in the guide's three chapters, and each description is followed by a series of questions for program evaluation. The first chapter addresses approaches to…

Four models for teaching students how to interact more effectively with text at the junior high, high school, and university levels are reviewed in this paper. Each model emphasizes one or more of the following classroom components and their interactions--student resources, text characteristics, tests or course goals, and instructional strategies.…

A survey of teachers' perceptions of student competencies, course content, instructional methods, and evaluation procedures was conducted to determine if previously reported conclusions about secondary school speech curricula had changed and if there were differences between the curricula in large and small high schools. The survey instrument was…

This study describes a method for providing easily understood information on the comparative instructional program effects of using multiple instructional products. The method was derived in the context of a national evaluation of three instructional product systems each of which was used to teach readiness and initial reading skills to…

This report describes cluster analysis methodology and illustrates its potential merits for educational research by describing a study designed to identify the natural subgroups existing among students beginning a secondary level remedial mathematics course. Cluster analysis forms groups of relatively homogeneous subjects represented in large data…

For Texas's Career Ladder System of rewarding good teachers, teachers' performance evaluations from 1981 to 1984 were used to rank teachers in the Austin Independent School District. Significant biases were noted between raters, between years, and between elementary and secondary teacher ratings. To adjust for these biases, each teacher's raw…

Three types of evaluation methods are discussed in terms of their use in evaluating both cognitive and affective learning in developmental programs: standardized tests; criterion-referenced tests; and naturalistic inquiries. Section I looks at the complexities of learning and the inherent difficulties in judging the quality and quantity of what is…

Policy analysis is the process by which systematically collected information is provided to decision makers. As an integral part of a specific policy setting process and a comprehensive planned change process, such analyses can provide school administrators with much needed information to guide their decisions concerning district-wide…

Data compiled from more than 2,000 member institutions of the National Testing Network in Writing were the source of this guide to writing assessment. Using an interdisciplinary approach, with insights from cognitive psychology, sociology, linguistics, educational measurement, rhetoric, and English education, the book gives suggestions on…

This collection of nine papers was presented at a workshop on evaluation for excellence in education. "Why Evaluate?" by Madeline I. Hardy, contends that although reform is needed, evaluation must continue in order to measure educational change, bring improvement, and provide public accountability. In "Evaluation for Excellence in…

Five categories of data collection are recommended for monitoring the quality of education: (1) outcomes, based on an input-output model, including data from student testing and credentials and degrees; (2) participation--who is served by education; (3) resources available to education; (4) long-term impact of education on work, income,…

Because the field of home economics has long been dominated by females, concern has often been expressed that many of the audiovisual materials available for use in home economics classes are also female dominated; in an age when both males and females have equal access to home economics classes, this is a major concern. In addition, with the…

Innovative methods devised to obtain the desired number of Anglo, Mexican American and American Indian women for a study of the health of recently widowed low income women are explored. Social and health service agencies proved generally unable to assist by contacting their clients. Different techniques were found to be successful for recruiting…

The validity of classroom research literature, centering on content, methodology, and audience, and the appraisal process for teachers are examined. Those engaged in classroom observation should be aware of the limitations of research. The concept of action research provides an alternative to the study of teachers and classrooms that recognizes…

An amendment to the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) mandated an assessment of the basic skills of all Summer Youth Employment and Training (SYET) Program enrollees. Many agencies in California used the Employability Competency System Appraisal Test to assess 1987 SYET participants' basic reading and math skills. Between June and October 1987,…