Describes how education and training providers can use organizational assessments to pinpoint a company's performance problems and deliver training services to help solve them. Assessments also help instructors understand the business context in which their company customers are operating, and to learn and use that business' particular "language."…

Describes seven defining characteristics of "authentic" assessment and how they have been operationalized in an interactive multimedia learning environment in preservice teacher education. A study showed students responded favorably to the elements of authentic assessment and had a good understanding of the software's content; this was…

As an alternative form of mathematics assessment for use with limited-English-proficient students, 14 mathematics tasks using manipulatives were administered to 45 Hispanic students in grades 1-3 and readministered 2-3 weeks later. Test reliability and validity, task difficulty, and the relationship among test subscales across grades were…

Both traditional instruction and student evaluation have become more a measure of recognition and recall ability than a genuine understanding of concepts. To move schools toward a greater sensitivity in cognitive processing, new views of time, curriculum, learning, and teachers' roles must be adopted. This will require major changes, including a…

Examines trends related to media and technology that are affecting formal education and corporate training/development. Discusses incorporation of audiovisual, computer-based, and telecommunications-based media into mainstream instruction; application of advanced interactive technologies; acceptance/support of educational technology; the home as…

The articles of this special issue focus on problems and deficiencies in the evaluation of school superintendents. They explore ways to improve superintendent evaluation, drawing on the literature, political realities, educational philosophy, and the theory and practice considered essential for good evaluation. (SLD)

An alternative high school teacher examined whether her students could be motivated to achieve higher performance levels, testing a theory that performance would improve if students were asked to meet detailed standards rather than be rewarded for class attendance and assignment completion. The experiment had mixed results. (Author/SM)

In a cooperative research program, classroom teachers and university researchers developed and implemented a contextualized performance-based assessment in mathematics. The assessments were intended to model what students may do in the course of daily activity and designed to assess problem solving, and conceptual and procedural understanding.…

Describes how to design a Web portfolio system that teachers can use in learning assessment. Evaluation of the Web portfolio system by students indicates that the applied technologies help students control their learning processes through developing portfolios. Students also believe Web portfolios serve as an effective communication channel and…

Examines the role of literature in the acquisition of literacy in English as a Second Language and Nigerian mother tongues. Provides a critique of the Nigerian literacy instruction model, and discusses how to help students acquire effective and efficient literacy. (Author/VWL)

Policy makers are turning away from individual performance pay, favoring school-based rewards that expand curriculum or fund other improvements. Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Texas have adopted performance-based rewards and sanctions. Policy makers must balance state and local control and align performance indicators with school…

A comparison between performance-based DISCOVER (Discovering Intellectual Strengths and Capabilities through Observation while allowing for Varied Ethnic Responses) assessment reports and two independent ratings in appraising 24 kindergartners' multiple intelligences through specific activities found that when intelligences were assessed through…

This article draws on the transcripts of focus group interviews held with three groups of students, all in their final year of four-year Bachelor degrees. All had completed the professional experience requirements for their course. One group comprised education students, one group comprised nursing students, and the third was studying engineering.…

Organisations devise training programmers to ensure that employees make an effective contribution to enterprise success. Not all organisations are likely to provide training, however, because there are significant trade-offs involved in terms of both costs and benefits. This article discusses the organisational determinants of training: larger…

Six years ago, the Division of Education at Indiana University East began the process of developing a performance-based program consistent with its division's conceptual framework, the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) principles, and Indiana state standards. One component of the state mandate is that all teachers…