This paper reviews the research bases for components of the resource/consulting teacher (R/CT) model, including use of curriculum based assessment, direct and data-based instruction, criterion-referenced mastery learning, stages of learning development, applied behavior analysis, and school consultation. (Author/DB)

Performance assessment could be the key to restructuring schools for higher standards and improved accountability, and at the very least should add an expanded dimension to educational assessment. Defines performance assessment, reviews some of the research on this topic, and addresses some of the issues regarding performance assessment of concern…

An assessment task in which clerical occupations students prepare a report on setting up an office aligns with Australia's competency-based curriculum and national assessments of competence. In this holistic approach, learners research and discuss the problem and draw on personal experience as well as classroom learning. (SK)

Staff at a Sandy Hook, Connecticut high school agreed that content standards are fixed learning goals specifying what a student should know and accomplish; performance standards describe student work products (criteria) to meet these goals. Forthright expectations increased students' accountability for quality work, improved grading objectivity,…

Nearly 100 Minnesota secondary schools offer community service-learning courses. Assessment methods include journal writing, self-assessment, research papers, site observations, and performance evaluation by agency supervisors. A Rochester high-school teacher designed a "community interaction" standard that students may fulfill by…

Interviews with 45 key informants involved in development of Britain's National Vocational Qualifications attributed failure to achieve better implementation to institutional constraints: political imperative to manage high youth unemployment, inadequate accountability and supervision, lack of mechanisms to compel implementation, and weakness of…

As part of the development of a scoring algorithm for a simulation-based dental hygiene initial licensure examination, this effort conducted a task analysis of the dental hygiene domain. Broad classes of behaviors that distinguish along the dental hygiene expert-novice continuum were identified and applied to the design of nine paper-based cases…

The continuing disparity between employer expectations and graduates' skills may be attributed to the language used in competency-based education. "Generic skills" may have several interpretations, and their transfer to the workplace is not automatic. Cultural differences between education and work also influence transfer. (SK)

Observations of two learning groups of young women studying office administration identified one group as middle-class Anglo-Celtic, the other as working class, varied ethnic groups. They had different cultural assumptions about the teacher's role in assisting student learning; one group recognized their own lack of familiarity with group work.…

Case vignettes of competency-based training's links with industry depict four cultures of practice emphasizing technique, enterprise, craft, or critique. Multiple concepts of competence and multiple cultures of competence development interact and create tensions that are brokered more or less successfully by vocational education practitioners. (SK)

Reports that in 1999 the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) established a task force to develop competency standards for higher education. Paying particular attention to learners of all levels, adaptable standards were developed that directors of learning resources centers can adopt as part of their institutions' strategic…

Defines critical academic skills that should be the hallmark of Kansas community college graduates, in anticipation of a legislative mandate for a common accountability measurement system. Presents five key critical competencies: oral and written communication skills, interpersonal and team skills, critical thinking and complex problem-solving…

This article identifies competencies needed by paraprofessionals working in early childhood special education including ways to document various mastery levels. It describes use of the competencies in Oregon's early childhood special education personnel development program. It explains the process used to identify needed competencies and also…

Presents a two-phase instructional design model that focuses on optimizing step size in whole-task approaches to learning complex, mainly non-recurrent, cognitive skills. Step size in a multiple-step whole-task approach-needed for the process worksheets-is determined on the basis of estimated part-task complexity. A developmental study of the…

Interviews with 195 Australian training managers found that competency-based training is effective for workplace-relevant learning, organizational development, and standardization. However, it marginalizes cultural, conceptual, and tacit knowledge. Although it achieves some stakeholders' objectives, it privileges certain enterprises, workers, and…