Critiques planned changes in the British National Vocational Qualifications Framework. Makes recommendations for units, credits, and credit-based qualifications. (SK)

An Australian study examined data from 337 students accepted into college from different entry points: secondary school leavers, students with Technical and Further Education (TAFE) qualifications, adults completing an admissions test, and transfers from other university programs. Transfers outperformed the other three groups, and the latter had…

Describes development of a set of organizational effectiveness self-rating scales for higher educational institutions in Hong Kong. The development method tested the relevance of effectiveness dimensions contained in the Competing Values Framework to colleges. Rating scales for four of nine effectiveness dimensions are included in the appendix.…

Proposes an "ethics of evidence" as an approach to medical uncertainty and a vital component of biomedical ethics. Calls for use of the best possible scientific evidence for every phase of medical decision making. (SLD)

Examines the ethics of data collection and dissemination, suggesting criteria for the morally responsible treatment of evidence collection, dissemination, and use. Comments on the importance of V. Mike's proposal of an "ethics of evidence." (SLD)

Offers guidelines for effective implementation of informal assessment procedures at the middle level. Accompanying each guideline is a sample strategy to enhance the informal assessment procedure. Guidelines are: (1) create a classroom environment that is conducive to informal assessment; (2) encourage students to engage in self-reflection and…

Discusses asserting and assessing authenticity of digital information sources and why authenticity is an issue now. Describes three types of technical and social strategies (public, secret, and functionally dependent) for asserting authenticity. Cites examples of requirements for authenticity from the various stages in the research process. (AEF)

Discusses the findings of a two-year research project on formative assessment in New Zealand among science teachers. The characteristics of formative assessment include responsiveness, sources of evidence, a tacit process, use of professional knowledge and experiences, and an integral part of teaching and learning. (Author/MM)

University students, asked to judge criteria for their own quality, rated a commitment to learning most important of 25 criteria. They considered most criteria of student quality to be more important at graduation than at entry, supporting a talent development approach to assessment rather than a resource approach. (Author)

Presents seven basic assumptions to help 17-year-olds distinguish themselves in today's highly competitive college selection process: the student is in charge, students must make a friend of their advocates, choose eight first choices, SATs and ACTs don't get you in, the college market is not a tight market, personalize the process, and be…

The author discusses five key issues related to the adequacy of tests of children's language. Within each key issue, she asks test adequacy questions, accompanied by criteria for determining adequacy. The author also reviews the information found in the manuals for four norm-referenced, standardized tests of language development to illustrate…

This article describes and proposes an unrestricted factor analytic procedure to: (a) assess the dimensionality and structure of a balanced personality scale taking into account the potential effects of acquiescent responding, and (b) correct the individual trait estimates for acquiescence. The procedure can be considered as an extension of ten…

Post-graduate courses are periodically evaluated in accordance with not always very clear criteria by CAPES (Co-ordinating Committee for Teaching Staff Improvement). These criteria try to measure, among other things, academic productivity (including quantity and quality of scientific production), number of classes given by teachers, time to…

At some point in an educator's professional life, he may be asked to serve on an awards committee for current publications in his field. An educator's concern then is on how to do it without bias, and more importantly, how to do it when the texts may be very different from each other. One text may be theory-based; one may be a textbook; and…

Confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) procedures can be used to provide evidence of measurement invariance. However, empirical evaluation has not focused on the accuracy of common CFA steps used to detect a lack of invariance across groups. This investigation examined procedures for detection of test structure differences across groups under several…