Introduces the assumptions behind responsive assessment--an approach to academic assessment that shifts the focus away from routine application of standardized assessment measures and toward understanding the immediate educational needs of learners. Articulates guidelines for the practice of responsive assessment and identifies barriers to its…

Provides a rationale for Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES) program evaluation, and discusses the development and use of the FLES Program Evaluation Inventory (FPEI). Questionnaires are provided for duplication, and step-by-step instructions are given for the administration, tabulation, and reporting of the five different forms.…

Discusses abuse of the Internet as an information source for classroom assignments and emphasizes the need for librarians to teach students and staff to evaluate information sources. Considers content, source, access, and structure, and lists Web sites that have evaluation guidelines as well as examples of bad sites. (LRW)

Describes a matrix that can illustrate the educational relationship between a course's learning activities and learning objectives. Discusses the development of the matrix in the context of a first-year engineering design course, and gives alternative applications of the matrix, such as using it in course articulation and using it as part of the…

Discusses methodological issues that may adversely affect the research process and impede understanding of Latinas, particularly those affected by AIDS. Gives suggestions for strengthening qualitative and quantitative methods when conducting research on Latinas. Describes the growing awareness of important clinical subgroup differences based on…

Describes the development of a Web-based learning program at Wichita Public Schools to eliminate barriers between home schoolers and traditional learning by offering online lessons, resources, and teaching support. Highlights include determining the audience; secure funding; budgeting; technology options; designing the courses; providing…

Offers suggestions for writing student rating scale questions that target individual faculty needs and interests. (EV)

This field research report examined the efficacy of the Spectrum Assessment Model (SAM), a measure used to provide teachers and parents with a broad profile of preschool children's abilities, skills, and interests. The measure was developed by educators at Harvard and Tufts Universities in 1984 and assesses young children's cognitive abilities in…

Directed primarily at teachers in bilingual programs, this report suggests ways in which they may assist evaluators in improving the quality of evaluation, particularly regarding descriptive information about the bilingual classroom. Six principles of classroom description are examined: (1) program model, type, and design; (2) student…

This book presents seven essays on evaluation in higher education. In "Threats and Opportunities of Evaluation in Higher Education" Roeland in't Veld sets the policy frameworks for increased emphasis on evaluation. In "Institutional Evaluation: The Role of the Main Actors in Higher Education" Andre Staropoli describes the roles of the forces which…

This report presents the results of a yearlong study of the process of evaluation use in a large city school district. Based on extensive naturalistic data-gathering, the research documents how local school administrators use evaluation information generated by the district's research and evaluation unit. The significance of the research is the…

The beneficial effects of the two agencies' cooperative efforts are presented. (AG)

Suggests that much of what is labeled OD is really a demonstration training done after school or during one or two day workshops, and that like other curricula, OD is packaged for teachers and administrators such that it becomes a program rather than a continuous process. (AM)

This paper presents a functional approach to the performance apppraisal of school psychologists, citing the high likelihood of increased public demand for accountability from human service professionals and a paucity of systematic efforts to appraise the performance of school psychologists as evidence of the importance of this topic. A functional…

The National Association of School Psychologists' position on 3-year evaluations for handicapped students calls for a flexible, individualized approach to student evaluations, rather than a standardized testing system. Specific issues to be addressed by these evaluations are discussed, including effectiveness of the student's individual education…