A novel Web-based Accountability Model (WAM) for assessment and learning in a Teacher Education Program was implemented. The objective is to explain the rationale for the WAM model, how it was implemented as the web-based Education Accountability System (EAS), and the impacts on the organization and the individual. Standards were followed in the…

Daily practice tests over assigned reading followed immediately by class discussion can improve learning and grades.

Instruction and learning are increasingly based on competencies, causing a call for assessment methods to adequately determine competency acquisition. Because competency assessment is such a complex endeavor, one single assessment method seems not to be sufficient. This necessitates Competency Assessment Programs (CAPS) that combine different…

We consider human performance on an optimal stopping problem where people are presented with a list of numbers independently chosen from a uniform distribution. People are told how many numbers are in the list, and how they were chosen. People are then shown the numbers one at a time, and are instructed to choose the maximum, subject to the…

In 1998, California state legislation called for significant reform in the preparation of teachers. As a result, institutions of higher learning must now conduct a formal performance-based assessment. All teacher candidates must participate in the assessment at the end of the program for receipt of the preliminary teaching credential. The…

The idea of using science notebooks as a classroom assessment tool is not new. There is general agreement that science notebooks allow teachers to assess students' conceptual and procedural understanding and to provide the feedback students need for improving their performance. In this study we examined the use of science notebooks as an…

The goal of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is the most effective communication possible. Speech-language pathologists are obligated to collect data, measure communication, and apply the principles of evidence-based practice (EBP). This article presents a model for EBP that represents how collecting and evaluating performance data…

The term "grade descriptors" has commonly been used to refer to the practice of describing for students characteristic work that would merit different grades. This paper reports the results of a phenomenographic study on the different ways that academic staff understood and practised grade descriptors as forms of standards-based assessment. Four…

In this article, we will first focus on how starting from the stakeholders' needs has led to the construction of examinations based on a theory of functional language performance assessment in which, not general, but domain-specific language use plays a central role. Second, we will describe how we aim to infer real-life performance on the basis…

This paper presents interviews with Dr. Jon Mueller and Dr. Paula Harris. Dr. Jon Mueller is a professor of Psychology at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Dr. Paula Harris is a professor in the Department of Language, Literature, and Arts at Jackson Community College in Jackson, Michigan. In these interviews, they present a…

The lack of valid, research-based methods to identify potential artistic talent hampers the inclusion of the arts in programs for the gifted and talented. The Talent Assessment Process in Dance, Music, and Theater (D/M/T TAP) was designed to identify potential performing arts talent in diverse populations, including bilingual and special education…

Teacher performance evaluation plays a key role in educational personnel reform, so it has been an important yet difficult issue in educational reform. Previous evaluations on teachers failed to make strict distinction among the three dominant types of evaluation, namely, capability, achievement, and effectiveness. Moreover, teacher performance…

Block scheduling constitutes one of the major types of restructuring considered by school administrators seeking to improve student performance. The relationship between two school schedules--the seven-period A/B block and the seven-period traditional schedule--and achievement of students in grade 11 was examined. Comparisons showed no significant…

This study used "The Competent Speaker", a rubric developed by the National Communication Association (S. P. Morreale, M. R. Moore, K. P. Taylor, D. Surges-Tatum, & R. Hulbert-Johnson, 1993), to evaluate student performance in general education public speaking courses as a case study of student skills and programmatic assessment. Results indicate…

This study examines how task characteristics (the number of visual chunks and the amount of planning time) and test-taker characteristics (graph familiarity) influence the perceptual and cognitive processes involved in graph comprehension, the strategies used in describing graphs, and the scores obtained on the graph description task in a…