Prepared in response to a Florida legislative mandate requiring the development and implementation of institutional accountability goals, this report presents the goals adopted by Pensacola Junior College (PJC), the college's plan of action, and data on progress made as of 1992-93 on the goals. Following an introduction, the first part presents…

Research supports the following four key elements of any comprehensive education-improvement effort: (1) high standards for all students; (2) teachers better trained for teaching to high standards; (3) flexibility to stimulate local reform, coupled with accountability for results; and (4) close partnerships among families, communities, and…

Over the last several years, state boards of education have become increasingly engaged in the development of content and performance standards and the assessments that will accompany them. This guidebook provides information on the move toward standards-based education. Part 1 provides a brief historical overview that places the standards…

Many people believe that future reforms of education should focus on the primary mission of elementary and secondary schools and that these schools must be held more accountable for the academic performance of their students. This book brings together researchers from various disciplines--most notably economics, educational policy and management,…

If rewards are to be used as a school-reform tool, their formats must be more closely tailored to the organizational characteristics of schools and to the purpose of improving teaching and learning. This paper describes lessons learned from Kentucky's collective incentive system, the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS). The…

Since 1972, Park College, in Missouri, has successfully competed contractually with other colleges and universities for the opportunity to provide non-traditional college education on U.S. Armed Forces installations throughout the United States. The contract process begins with the military installation's Education Services Officer (ESO)…

The school district superintendent plays a critical role in the education of America's students. This guidebook asserts that districts are not being well served by their present systems for evaluating superintendents. It outlines some of the problems and deficiencies in current evaluation practice and offers professionally based leads for…

This handbook for superintendent performance evaluation contains information for boards of education as they institute or improve their evaluation system. The handbook answers questions involved in operationalizing, implementing, and evaluating a superintendent-evaluation system. The information was developed from research on superintendent…

Chapter I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is the largest federally-funded program designed to provide services to elementary and secondary students to meet the special needs of educationally deprived students who reside in areas with high concentrations of low-income families. The 1994-95 school year is the last year of…

Charter schools are public, nonsectarian schools that operate under a written contract from a local school board or other organization. This book describes the history of the charter-school movement and the patterns that current charter-school advocates may find themselves repeating; offers examples of existing charter schools, enabling…

The Tasmania Department of Education and the Arts commissioned policy research in February 1992 to identify forms of accountability preferred by stakeholders. This paper describes the policy-research project that sought to clarify the accountability processes and the criteria for collecting data and improving the quality of learning, teaching, and…

This document was developed to help adult education stakeholders involved in efforts to develop/test/implement a national reporting system of outcome measures documenting students' performance in the federally funded adult education program. The report reviews existing/planned accountability systems, examines major issues involved in developing an…

Despite its long history, accountability in education means different things to different people. There is little consensus about how to apply the concept intelligently and creatively in schools. This fastback explores various issues inherent in the concept and practice of accountability, as applied to public education. The issues include…

Current conceptions of literacy and what being literate means are discussed, and the strengths and weaknesses of the standardized multiple-choice test as a tool for assessing literacy proficiency and a way to report learning progress are explored. The possible advantages of alternative assessment strategies are reviewed, and an assessment model is…

This collection of seven essays from the Stanford Forum for Higher Education Futures focuses on how downsizing, quality management, and reengineering have are affecting higher education. An introductory paper, "Introduction: Change in Higher Education: Its Effect on Institutional Performance," (Joel W. Meyerson and Sandra L. Johnson)…