This report presents findings of an 18-month study to find out how state political and education leaders gauge the performance of citizen boards of trustees and to assess the overall condition of academic governance. The study included interviews with more than 250 state officials and education leaders, site visits to seven states, and an…

Based on an extensive analysis of the characteristics of 113 accountability reports from 32 state education agencies, a study group convened to develop a list of necessary, desirable, and succinct characteristics of good state and district educational accountability reports. This report discusses the recommendations of the study group. Desirable…

This report addresses various issues related to assessment, explaining that assessment is an integral process in all of Texas's Centers for Professional Development of Teachers (CPDTs). Section 1 explains that CPDTs conduct assessment to improve programs continuously, improve the authenticity of the tasks associated with mastery of teaching,…

This document presents two papers given at a 1996 conference on children's mental health. The first paper is "New Approaches to Evaluating Systems" by Heather B. Weiss. This paper discusses the need for evaluations of systems change through the development and use of evaluation databases of both comprehensive programs and system reform efforts. It…

The School-Based Management and Accountability Program, also known as the "ABCs of Public Education," or just "the ABCs," is the statewide school-based accountability program for public schools in North Carolina. This document reports the results of the 1997-98 ABCs, in the second year of the implementation of the ABCs in…

Evaluation of foreign languages in the elementary school (FLES) programs is needed to provide feedback (descriptive data about a school's offerings) and accountability (program accomplishments). Thorough program evaluation verifies both a district's thoughtful, written philosophy of foreign language education and local goals. Some FLES program…

Within the Illinois Community College System (ICCS), each of the 50 member colleges reports to the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) on their productivity improvements. This report summarizes the productivity reports of the ICCS colleges, examines the results of a series of analyses of productivity conducted by the ICCB from a statewide…

Widespread educational reform will occur only if encouraged by a coherent policy environment that explicitly supports fundamental change and unleashes the imagination and energy of students, teachers, parents, and community leaders. To prepare students well for the 21st century, our education system requires an interdisciplinary environment, a…

This manual presents the body of laws, regulations, and practices related to attendance accounting and reporting in California public schools. Following the introduction, section 1 presents information on compulsory attendance, including residency requirements, interdistrict transfers, exemptions, absences, and truancy. Section 2 provides…

This paper examines the concept of "outcomes-based education" (OBE), how it was developed, how it relates to other current reforms that encompass the notion of outcomes, and how it relates to students with disabilities in theory and in practice. Outcomes-based education holds that all children can learn and succeed and that schools are…

A crucial, but often forgotten, role of educational assessment is to enhance students' learning. This author advocates that an assessment program designed for student learning differs from assessment for accountability in purpose, test format, measurement type, number, and spread of tests, use of test results, and amount of interval between…

This paper discusses implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) tactics for faculty development at Ursinus College (Pennsylvania). Emphasis is on the use of TQM to improve the marketing of faculty and institutional achievements. The paper reports that the administration's use of informal meetings has enhanced faculty initiatives in such…

In the Australian higher education scene the importance of recognizing effective teaching is gaining increasing prominence. Issues of academic accountability and the increasing scarcity of financial resources for higher education have added pressure to the debate about what constitutes quality in higher education. Central to this debate is the…

During the Perth meeting of the Australian Education Council (AEC) on July 1-2, 1993, policy making power shifted from the AEC to the states and from Labor to non-Labor ministers. Labor ministerial power directed public education through much of the 1980s, when the rhetoric of national partnership was all-pervasive. At the July conference, the…

Each year when the Educational Testing Services releases state average SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores of high school students, Indiana officials are asked why Indiana ranks so low and what's being done to improve it. Leaders reply that scores are lower because more students take the test than in states with higher scores. This report…