Direct assessments of the accuracy with which raters can use a rating instrument are presented. This study demonstrated how surplus behavioral incidents scaled during the development of Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) can be used effectively in the evaluation of the newly developed scales. Construction of scenarios of hypothetical…

Direct assessment of writing skill, usually considered to be synonymous with assessment by means of writing samples, is reviewed in terms of its history and with respect to evidence of its reliability and validity. Reliability is examined as it is influenced by reader inconsistency, domain sampling, and other sources of error. Validity evidence is…

Standardized testing of American students provides comparative scores for the placement of individual students, enables students to make appropriate decisions regarding a future course of study, and offers the opportunity to assess the effectiveness of teachers, schools, and school districts. As a result of using standardized test scores for…

Two experiments investigated the role of children's assessments of their performance on their decisions to seek help and their preferences for different types of assistance. Blocked into low and high verbal skill groups, participants in study 1 were 84 middle-class third- and fifth-grade elementary school students. Subjects performed a multi-trial…

This paper argues that college administrators have largely escaped the scrutiny of the otherwise far-reaching and comprehensive outcomes assessment movement in higher education. This paucity of assessment data regarding managers in higher education is especially remarkable in light of the fact that many internal and external constituency groups…

This executive summary discusses the definition of learning disabilities (LD) and how students are identified as having a learning disability. It begins by outlining four major methods that are used to compute the discrepancy-based definition of LD and the flaws of the discrepancy-based model. It then describes an approach to defining LD that is…

Results-based evaluation and assessment of guidance and counseling is a difficult task. How to best evaluate whether the comprehensive guidance program was getting the intended results became an issue for Omaha Public Schools. They set about to draft a framework for measuring student behavior or learning resulting from activities associated with…

Enhancing the early literacy of the nation's children is now a goal shared by parents, educators, and policymakers alike. Fundamental to this goal is a workforce of early childhood educators who are themselves literate: able to become well-informed about child development, to organize learning strategies for young children, to assess children's…

The primary focus of this report is to examine the effect that geographical location may have on the performance of students from schools from all parts of Australia who participated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000). Approximately 5,477 students from 231…

Although interdisciplinary teaching has long been supported as a pedagogical practice, little research has looked closely at interdisciplinary teaching. A literature review was undertaken, therefore, to articulate the current theoretical understanding of interdisciplinary education and to examine how it influences practice in middle and high…

Intended to link civic education curriculum, instruction, and assessment, this guide is directed to those educators who are looking for ways to authentically assess students in the area of civic education. The handbook is designed to connect content and the broader goals of preparing youth to participate in democratic society. It is based on the…

The Consortium on Inclusive Schooling Practices (1996) developed a framework to analyze state and local policies and their relationship to the development of inclusive schooling practices. The framework focuses on standards-based systemic reform across six major policy areas: curriculum, student assessment, accountability, personnel development…

The purpose of this study was to investigate certain aspects of the internal structure of the DISCOVER assessment checklist (C. Maker, A. Nielson, and J. Rogers, 1994) to assess its construct validity. Other purposes included assessing percentages of identified students and gender differences through the use of the assessment. The sample consisted…

Much of the tradition of performance measurement comes from the industrial part of the private sector, where work measurement looks at how to improve production. This approach does not translate well for entities that provide service. For them, a better approach is the change-agent model, which recognizes that the agency or program provides…

State departments of education (SDEs) play a pivotal role in the implementation of state-level school reform. This role is examined using two models of statewide school reform in Kentucky and Vermont. How the departments implemented their plans and how such implementation affected the internal dynamics of the departments, as well as the external…