An approach to assessment is described that allows students to understand and help decide the criteria for good work. It is called "negotiable contracting." Negotiable contracting makes assessment a highly individualized process that recognizes the subtly different ways in which students master skills. Students and teachers jointly create a…

In 1997, the Detroit Public Schools Board of Education established an agreement with Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc. to enable Sylvan to provide supplementary reading instruction to selected students in 10 elementary, middle, and high schools. An evaluation was conducted to determine the extent to which Sylvan met its goals. Data indicate that…

Contains information on a vocabulary game for the content areas; maintaining teacher morale through weekly team meetings; using the typewriter in an adult literacy program; and rewarding completed performance contracts with free books. (JT)

A beginning course in teacher education offered by the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Arizona is described. The course features team teaching with large and small group instruction and directed study, student contracts, and observation/participation in the local schools. (JMD)

In order to encourage instructors interested in collaborative classroom approaches, the College of Continuing Education at the University of Rhode Island sponsored a series of workshops and informal discussions. A telephone survey of faculty was undertaken to learn the ways they were using collaborative approaches in their courses. (MLW)

This manual provides information needed by students serving in professional internships as part of the Vocational Education Studies Program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Internships consist of real-world experiences in education, training support, and management occupations, such as curriculum developer, evaluator, media…

This handbook was prepared to guide teachers who are concerned about dealing with the mainstreaming of students classified as disabled. Based on the experiences of Learning Unlimited, an alternative education program at North Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, the handbook emphasizes that individualized outcomes for students can be…

This Educational Testing Service conference provided an opportunity to clarify many of the issues and problems involved with educational accountability. Among these issues were assessment, evaluation, auditing, and performance contracting. The papers included in these proceedings are: The Means and Ends of Accountability (Terrel H. Bell); Issues…

Contracts that base the compensation and job security of teachers on seniority may promote the goals of public education more effectively than performance-based contracts. Public school teaching is a very complex process requiring constant adaptation to changing students, situations, methods, and dynamics. Measurement of teacher performance under…

The study described in this report was launched in Fall 1978 at Bronx Community College (BCC) to determine the efficacy of two procedures for enhancing the academic survival and study skills of students in academic difficulty. Introductory material looks at BCC's Operation Second Chance (OSC), one of these treatment procedures, which employs…

The National Education Association (NEA) opposes the use of standardized, norm-referenced tests of intelligence, achievement, and aptitude, citing problems with their substance, structure, administration, and use. NEA suggests five alternatives: (1) performance contracts; (2) teacher-student and teacher-parent-student interviews; (3)…

Six articles concerning college reading instruction are presented in this special interest journal. Chester Tillman and A. Garr Cranney offer informal guidelines for evaluating commercially produced reading improvement materials in terms of their purpose, educational and psychological factors which affect appropriateness for a class, cost, and…

Too often, teachers working with individualized instructional programs turn the instruction over entirely to kits, packets, and canned commercial materials and abandon all meaningful teacher/student and student/student interaction. This paper urges teachers to avoid a total dependence on commercial and teacher-made learning packets. It examines…

This study of performance contracting was made in 1974-75. It differs from other studies in that it is based on a comprehensive body of data, including information about state-supported contracts in Michigan and California; it is focused on the role of monetary incentives in education rather than on the particular instructional programs; it made a…

A learning contract is a document, drawn up by a student and his instructor or advisor that specifies what the student will learn, how this will be accomplished, within what period of time, and what the criteria of evaluation will be. The student and instructor agree upon specific objectives, resources to be used, and feedback sessions.…