Using as a case study an attempted change in student evaluation and reporting procedures in a junior high school, this paper proposes an analytic framework that identifies specific organizational features which impede the innovation process. (SJL)

Addresses teachers' frustration in reconciling appropriate education for young children with the practice of grading to assess and report progress, contending that research on unreliability in grading and the efforts of committed parents and professionals are necessary to change the practice. Summarizes research suggesting that grading is…

Last fall, the National Center for Public Policy in Higher Education published the results of a five-state demonstration project aimed at developing common state-level benchmarks for student learning for its fifty-state report card, "Measuring Up." One of the instruments used in this Pew-funded project was the Collegiate Learning…

Background: Suicide is one of the most common causes of death among young people. A report from the US Surgeon General called for strategies to prevent suicide, including increasing public awareness of suicide and risks factors, and enhancing research to understand risk and protective factors. Weight perception has been linked to depression and…

Throughout elementary, middle, and high school, girls earn higher grades than boys in all major subjects. Girls, however, do not out perform boys on achievement or IQ tests. To date, explanations for the underprediction of girls' GPAs by standardized tests have focused on gender differences favoring boys on such tests. The authors' investigation…

After a foreword by Patricia McGrath Russavage, this yearbook contains the following eight articles: (1) "IRA Resolution on Literacy Assessment"; (2) "Historical Perspectives by Dale Johnson and S. Jay Samuels" (Shirley A. Wagoner and Janice Almasi); (3) "Report Cards in Literacy Evaluation: Teacher's Training, Practices,…

The methods used to assign grades to students have long been of concern to teachers. Traditional approaches to solving the difficulties have centered on norm-referenced and criterion-referenced evaluations. A promising alternative arises when criterion-referenced evaluation is linked with contract grading. A student may contract with a teacher to…

Serious drawbacks can be cited for almost every form of student performance evaluation. The typical A-B-C-D report seldom tells anything really meaningful; the arguments against this system are many--unless you have straight A offspring. Written comments or reports are good if they tell, in a meaningful way, what the student is accomplishing in…

This report presents both the Bureau-Wide Annual Report Card for 2003-2004 and individual report cards for 120 schools. Information presented in each report card include: tribes served, type of school, grades, accreditation, enrollment, goals (performance indicators) data, staff development, number of reported incidents involving either substance…

This document contains highlights from "Measuring Up 2002," a report that grades states on their higher education performance. "Measuring Up" is based on quantitative measures of performance rather than on the opinions and judgments of authors or sponsors. "Measuring Up" shows that many states have made substantial strides in preparing high school…

Administrators are struggling to make the report cards sent home to parents more meaningful. Alternative ways to report student progress find more favor among educators than parents, as anecdotal evidence from several communities shows. Revamping attempts fail due to substantive problems with new reporting procedures or inept public-relations…

Provides guidelines to make grades a better assessment of learning. Argues that, for any assessment task to be fair, its content, context, and performance expectations should (1) reflect knowledge appropriate to all students; (2) tap knowledge that all students have had time to acquire in the class; and (3) and be as free as possible of cultural,…

Making report cards more understandable and valuable to users is a top priority for educators revising them. Administrators should tie report cards to new standards and exams; be open-minded; involve parents, teachers, and schools; check with technology people; and strive for clarity. A Maryland district's experience is profiled. (MLH)

The relationships between maternal beliefs in control and responsiveness and adolescent academic achievement were examined by interviewing 59 Black mothers and female guardians of adolescents, ages 11 to 19, living in a northeastern small city or adjacent suburb and correlating their answers to year-end report cards of their adolescents.…

This study focuses on a cost analysis conducted for the purpose of improving education in Illinois. The study explores educational funding in Illinois using 2005 Illinois School Report Card data, as collected by the Illinois State Board of Education. The study strives to make transparent the purpose, key stakeholders, methods, and intended use of…