This chapter considers the social and cultural implications of instructional development, and suggests that the success or failure of a project can best be predicted from improvements in relevant social analysis combined with a competent technical analysis, rather than formal analytic and evaluative analyses alone. Recent developments in the…

The intent of this paper is to illustrate the use of stakeholder information in evaluating a school program. The material presented is part of a comprehensive formative evaluation of a crisis intervention program operated by a suburban school district situated near a large industrial city in the Midwest. The crisis intervention program provided…

Honors programs are a viable part of the community college response to the challenges of the late 1980's. The growth in the two-year college memberships in Phi Theta Kappa and the National Collegiate Honors Council suggests that greater attention is being given to the academically able students at the two-year college. A rationale for developing…

This presentation examines the history of merit pay and analyzes studies and research on merit pay to discover directions for developing effective procedures. Reasons for failure of merit pay plans include administrative problems, personnel problems, collective bargaining, financial problems, unsatisfactory evaluation, staff dissension,…

Administrative evaluation improves leadership and promotes professional growth. Each school district should examine state statutes to determine if its evaluation forms and procedures are in compliance. In addition, each district should carefully examine its board policies. The evaluation plan should be designed to encourage productive dialogue…

The United States Armed Services are planning to introduce computerized adaptive testing (CAT) into the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), which is a major part of the present personnel assessment procedures. Adaptive testing will improve efficiency greatly by assessing each candidate's answers as the test progresses and posing…

The advantages and disadvantages of grade equivalent (GE) scores are explored, including appropriate uses for GE type scores and how to bring current GE scales closer to the type of information educators appear to desire. Although GE scores are not an equal interval scale, not comparable across school subjects, and do not indicate the grade level…

The process of developing a testing/evaluation/instruction management subsystem that will be uniquely suited to the specific situation of a given district requires a decision to use a strategy for instructional change in which data from testing and evaluation would play a major role. Considerations that might go into such a decision involve some…

The 11 papers in this collection focus on research in instructional television, the theme of a conference attended by media producers, researchers, and policy makers from Australia, Britain, Canada, France, West Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the United States. The opening paper by Deane Hutton discusses two parallel but contrasting…

Research on a system of developing and monitoring progress on individualized education program (IEP) goals has been conducted over a 5-year period at Minnesota's Institute for Research on Learning Disabilities. This research and development project is summarized by outlining the goal and rationale of the research, presenting the overall research…

This is the final evaluation report for the first year of the Academically Gifted Program (AGP) in the Hillsborough County (Florida) Public Schools. The program is supported by state funds and is intended to offer academically challenging content in mathematics and science to gifted students in grades three to twelve. The report presents a project…

An evaluation was conducted of an Illinois Department of Curriculum and Instruction inservice course on microcomputer utilization. Designed to provide educators with preliminary knowledge and experience pertaining to educational uses of microcomputers, the course focused on hardware, software, philosophy, methodology, utilization modes and…

To accomplish cultural relevance in the classroom for Indian students, changes in instructional methods must complement alterations in course content. Since learning styles, like cultural features, may vary for Indian students, the effective teacher will master a matching teaching style adapted to emphasize unique cultural strengths rather than to…

A step-by-step outline of recommended procedures is presented for a performance based evaluation system for teachers in Missouri. Four general performance areas form the basis for the system: (1) instructional processes; (2) classroom management; (3) interpersonal relationships; and (4) professional responsibilities. Nineteen specific,…

Formative research on the eye movements of children in the older age range of "Sesame Street's" target audience was conducted and results were used to answer a range of formative questions concerning television programing goals and their implementation. Forty-six low-income, black and caucasian children, ranging in age from 4.9 to 6.9…