Comparative Music Education is often considered to be an unnecessary subject because there seem to be more important issues for research than studying music education in various countries. Comparative music education is not a luxury, but rather a necessity in the twenty-first century. Scholars and music teachers in many countries are struggling…

This study describes the multifaceted components of an assessment process. The paper explains a novel approach in which an advisory council participated in a "fun," hands-on activity to rank-order learning outcomes. The top ranked learning competency, as identified by the advisory council, was the need for students to gain a better…

This study evaluated the predictive validity of two preemployment screening devices--the Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview and the Academic Skills Assessment portion of the Praxis Series test--as used by an urban high-need and hard-to-staff school district. Specifically, we compared predictor scores with subsequent teacher assessment scores…

Elementary education faculty at this university embedded a Teacher Work Sample (TWS) performance-based assessment into the student teaching experience to assess candidates' ability to impact student learning as required by recent accreditation reforms. The authors conducted an internal evaluation of the TWS for the purposes of strengthening not…

This study investigates the effects of a competency-oriented course and the effects of feedback training on students' reflection skills. Thirty-one nursing students enrolled in a conventional course with lectures and assignments following a traditional test. Subsequently, they enrolled in a competency-oriented course, which included more…

Standard 9 of the "National Science Teachers Association Standards for Science Teacher Preparation" is designed to ensure that science teacher preparation programs provide preservice science teachers with the knowledge and skills to understand and successfully engage students in a safe and ethical manner. This standard contains four components…

Training and investing teachers at all career levels in student-centered practices is widely recognized as a significant challenge. Various studies document the failure of student-centered teaching practices to take hold in K-12 mathematics classrooms in significant ways, including collaborative work; problems that are cognitively demanding or…

Discusses the fundamental qualities that must be used to judge the merit of performance standards: validity, reliability, and genuineness. The Rasch-based objective model has demonstrated these qualities, but other models should also be evaluated for these characteristics. (SLD)

Explores results-oriented management and discusses roles that evaluators can play in overcoming challenges that arise in results-oriented management. Suggests that the involvement of evaluators in results-oriented management is likely to be helpful in moving public and nonprofit organizations to a results orientation. (SLD)

Direct listening instruction is a frequent component of basic communication courses. Research has found changes in self-perceived listening competence during a basic communication course and only a minimal relationship between self-perceived and performance-based measures of listening and other communication behaviors. Results of the present study…

In recent years, strategic management concepts seem to be gaining greater attention from the academicians and the practitioner's alike. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) concept is one such management concepts that has spread in worldwide business and consulting communities. The BSC translates mission and vision statements into a comprehensive set of…

In the economics of education, no task has been more important or more difficult than identifying the relationship between school inputs and student performance. The literature on this topic has reached little resolution, largely owing to the endogeneity of school resources. In this paper I examine the effect of a vital but little studied…

Within an authentic assessment regime, a student is evaluated in terms of their ability to demonstrate application of a body of knowledge to a scenario situated in an actual, or a near replica of a real-world context. At Universitas 21 Global (U21Global), a completely online graduate school backed by 16 universities from around the world, the…

This paper examines the determinants of performance on the business major field achievement ETS exam with a focus on the impact of applying ETS exam scores to part of the capstone course grade as a performance incentive. The sample consists of 150 students at a midsized regional institution located in the Southwestern region of the United States.…

This article describes the development and implementation of assessment in a new outcome-based marketing curriculum that was developed using a zero-based approach. Outcomes for the marketing curriculum were specified at the program, department, course, and lesson levels. Direct embedded assessments as well as indirect assessment methods were used…