This paper focuses on the experience of the Policy Education Centre on Assistance to Transition in providing monitoring and evaluation services to "Support for Improvement in Governance and Management in Central and Eastern European Countries" (SIGMA), a joint project of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the…

This publication is designed to help Illinois social science teachers assess their students' learning using a variety of methods. The guide includes a rubric for scoring site-based alternative assessment activities, a rationale for the rubric, and sample activities to differentiate students' knowledge, reasoning, and communication skills. The…

This paper provides an extensive literature review and recommendations for authentic assessment, and then provides recommendations for administrators in order to implement authentic assessment in elementary schools. A lack of comfort, with the way in which standardized tests seems to dictate what teachers teach as part of the curriculum, was a…

Designed to help teachers who want to implement an approach to assessment and reporting that supports the wholeness of the teaching/learning/assessment enterprise, this book describes students' accumulation of literacy-related behaviors and attributes and allows for the idiosyncracies of individual learning patterns. The scales presented in the…

In 1999, Rhode Island students in grades 3, 7, and 10 took a performance assessment in writing as part of the Rhode Island State Assessment Program. These two documents, a guide for educators and a guide for parents, describe the test and its scoring. The test is called a performance assessment because it requires the students to demonstrate their…

In this book, teachers, students, administrators, and assessors all show that a carefully rendered portfolio becomes an increasingly internalized standard against which learners can assess their own growth. Essays in the book share diverse portfolio projects from across the United States and reflect the spirit and enthusiasm the authors shared as…

This study investigated the effects of group ability composition (homogeneous versus heterogeneous) on group processes and outcomes for high ability students completing science performance assessments. Participants were 99 seventh and eighth graders from 9 classes in 2 schools. The results show that group ability composition does not have…

Elementary education majors at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette are required to use performance portfolios, which document their experiences in the field, provide opportunities for improved performance-based assessment by the instructor/field experience supervisors, and promote self-evaluation and self-reflection. At the end of the spring…

There is currently much interest in the assessment of student achievement in public schools. This guide to forms of assessment discusses some of the most common tests and their uses. Standardized tests are described, and some of their limitations are outlined. State-mandated tests are common, and, because the creators of such tests are removed…

This guide shows how to make assessment authentic and meaningful in chapters that outline the "hows" and "whys" of assessment. In addition to suggestions for making assessment enriching and informative, the book includes a CD-ROM that contains reproducible forms. The chapters are: (1) "Trust and Risk"; (2) "Instruments: Assessment Drives…

The Institute for Standards, Curricula, and Assessments (ISCA) of the United Teachers Los Angeles Educational Foundation has instituted a lesson study process and support system for teachers that enables them to develop high-quality, standards-based curricula and assessments. This Handbook represents the teachers' best thinking at this time. It is…

Developed by classroom teachers during the development phase of Minnesota's Graduation Standards, this performance package is made up of locally designed assignments that, taken together, show whether a student has learned and can apply the knowledge and skills related to gathering information to answer questions. It begins with reference to the…

Developed by classroom teachers during the development phase of Minnesota's Graduation Standards, this performance package is made up of locally designed assignments that, taken together, show whether a student has learned and can apply the knowledge and skills related to the presentation of a film/video exhibition. It begins with reference to the…

Developed by classroom teachers during the development phase of Minnesota's Graduation Standards, this performance package is made up of locally designed assignments that, taken together, show whether a student has learned and can apply the knowledge and skills related to creating and performing original artistic presentations. It begins with…

This monograph contains the invited papers of the major speakers at the Educational Policy Institute's Invitational Conference on Quality in Higher Education held at Oxford University, summer 2000. The purpose of the conference was to discuss how quality is being defined and measured in the context of higher education. The papers are: (1) "Quality…