This policy brief summarizes a longer report about state assessment and accountability systems in all 50 states. It examines the extent to which state policies meet the intent of federal policy, particularly Title I programs. It asks, "How are states measuring student performance and reporting it to the general public?" and "How are states holding…

This supplement to the resources and training manual Assessing Youth Success was designed as a facilitator's guide to activities for a 3-hour training. The purpose of the training is to help participants become more proficient in assessing youth success. The supplement contains five new optional activities intended to help participants explore…

The Board of Governors of California's Community College System, in executing California's Partnership for Excellence (PFE) Program, has recognized that the colleges operate within remarkably disparate social and economic environments, and that these differences include variation in factors that are likely to affect the performance of colleges on…

This paper examines the use of portfolio evaluation in accrediting higher education teachers in the United Kingdom. It explains portfolios as an approach to authentic assessment and discusses the issue of reliability in portfolio assessment when teacher accreditation depends on it. Researchers investigated one course, collecting data on 53…

The role of the principal in evaluating student achievement is discussed in this paper. The principal is in a leadership position and has the duty of improving the ways in which students are evaluated. Educators often are blamed for poor academic achievement for which they really cannot be held responsible, but there certainly are areas in which…

The New Synthesis approach views learning as an active process by which learners create knowledge structures or mental representations. This book attempts to give classroom teachers alternative ways of assessing how their learners think, what they know, and what they can do. The chapters are: (1) "Teaching, Motivation, and Testing"; (2) "Academic…

The assessment of student achievement in mathematics is discussed. Different approaches should be used to ascertain student achievement of objectives in the mathematics curriculum. Some methods are subjective, such as rating scales, and these can be very useful. Among more objective approaches is the use of standardized tests. There is a number of…

This paper describes the approach to consolidating multiple measures of student achievement used by the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) in the 1997-1998 reporting cycle. Beginning in 1996-1997, all California schools that served Title I students or were involved in the state's Coordinated Compliance Review process were required to…

This report provides a performance review of a Texas school district. For the review, investigators interviewed district employees, school-board members, students, parents, business leaders, and representatives from community organizations. The review team also held public forums, conducted focus-group sessions and personal interviews, surveyed…

This report provides a performance review of a Texas school district. For the review, investigators interviewed district employees, school-board members, students, parents, business leaders, and representatives from community organizations. The review team also held public forums, conducted focus-group sessions and personal interviews, surveyed…

This resource guide was published as part of the college-wide assessment and evaluation activities at Columbia Basin College (Washington) in 1997. The purpose in producing the document was to meet the need for some guidelines and written information about how to develop an assessment plan, the different ways to assess that plan, and how to use the…

This paper asserts that through foundations courses in teacher education programs, all preservice teachers, not only social studies teachers, should come to understand the concept of cultural influence through an examination of the philosophical, ideological, and historical past. This paper examines the subject-matter content, authentic assessment…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a performance-based assessment system newly implemented in a graduate education (Masters of Education) program was related to the development of adult learners' cognitive skills. This assessment system required that learners develop and maintain a professional teaching portfolio showing evidence…

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was founded in 1987 in response to recommendations regarding the central role of teachers in educational quality. NBPTS establishes rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do; operates a national voluntary system to assess and certify teachers…

This study examines the importance of using effectiveness indicators for assessing institutional outcomes, and their congruence with actual or potential use in making institutional change and improvement, in selected northwest community colleges. The study was undertaken in response to the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges' transition…