In response to declining enrollments, some local school districts are using performance criteria to determine the order of teacher layoffs. The difficulties of implementing this practice are illustrated by the experiences of four Massachusetts school districts. Interviews with principals reveal the adverse impact upon teacher-principal relations…

Compares instruction provided at community and four-year colleges based on evaluations obtained from: (1) students who completed their freshman year at a university and then transferred to a community college, and (2) students who transferred to a university after completing one year at a two-year college. (JP)

Despite a lack of agreement on its validity as a predictor of performance during residency, the dean's letter of recommendation has become an important factor in each medical student's application to postgraduate training programs. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the content of dean's letters was conducted. (MLW)

Different instructions accompanied faculty/course evaluation questionnaires distributed in university courses (stratified by level and size). Instructions differed in information conveyed about use and disposition of results. Instructions containing information about administrative or course improvement use produced higher ratings than those given…

Outlines the specifications for objective-based programs in career education, describes the development of one component (an item and objective bank) of an objective-based woodworking program, and discusses the development of objectives and test items and the utilization of criterion-referenced testing data. A sample of the woodworking objectives…

Presents results of a mail survey of sales managers. The survey asked three questions: (1) What organizational factors are adversely affecting your performance as sales manager? (2) What factors are adversely affecting your salespeoples' performance? and (3) What skills do you personally need to improve? (CSS)

Outlines a procedure for designing an industrial skills training program in which the trainer prepares a job analysis by actually learning about the job duties and equipment; writes instructional objectives for each equipment section; and combines sets of job photos, scripts, objectives, and other information into a study guide for trainees. (MF)

Education majors preparing to be secondary school teachers could participate in a pre-student teacher field experience teaching project. Project participants had higher self-concepts at the end of student teaching than their nonparticipating counterparts. Field experience was not related to higher ratings of student teaching performance. (GDC)

The relationship of teachers' allocation of time to individual student achievement was studied. It was concluded that teachers prefer to increase students' average achievement rather than to decrease the variance in achievement within the classroom. (MH)

A survey to determine the use of student ratings of instruction in medical education is reported. Results indicate that student ratings are widely used, that both standardized and nonstandardized forms are used, that ratings are often administered exclusively by one agent, and that administrators often have access to results. (JMD)

The study investigated the effects of interspersing known items during spelling instruction on new words for three moderately to severely mentally retarded male students (ages 19 to 24). Results showed that high density reinforcement did facilitate performance over baseline; however, interspersal training was superior to the other conditions in…

A theory of motivation based upon attributions of causality for success and failure is offered. Three central causal dimensions are identified: stability, locus, and control; these dimensions, respectively, are linked with expectancy change, esteem-related emotions, and interpersonal judgments. A theory of motivation with implications for…

First-year veterinary medicine students were surveyed during the first and last week of class to determine if student ratings of instructors are free of bias from generalized attitudes. The tabulated results indicate that the students were not biased by preconceived opinions of instructors. (BH)

Studies are reported which attempt to discover the exact level of second language proficiency reached by students in second language immersion programs, with emphasis on analysis of error. (RM)