Performance-based assessment provides an alternative identification method for young gifted children. A performance-based identification process was developed and implemented to select three-, four-, and five-year-old children for inclusion in a school for gifted children. Literature regarding child development, characteristics of young gifted…

Standards-based assessment, or at least the concept of standards-based assessment, will provide a key strategy for the implementation of the New Zealand National Qualifications Framework. This paper considers the meaning of standards-based assessment and its role in New Zealand's assessment for nationally recognized qualifications. Standards-based…

Recent reports by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the National Research Council, the Mathematical Sciences Education Board, and the Board on Mathematical Sciences emphasize that coordinated improvement in the content of mathematics curriculum, classroom instruction, and teacher education is the key to improving mathematics…

An evaluation of the Research and Development Centers and the Regional Educational Laboratories of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) was conducted by an outside analyst brought in in September 1991 by then Assistant Secretary Diane Ravitch. The Research and Development Centers have been one of the primary sources of…

The Coalition of Essential Schools is involved in a 3-year study to translate collaborative inquiry into a research process to simultaneously build schools' capacities for change. A current collaborative project is described, with a dialog between a principal, a teacher, and a researcher who are engaged in a process of school improvement. Members…

In September 1991, the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) announced standards for basic, proficient, and advanced achievement in mathematics and reported that few American students had reached these standards. Expert reviewers noted technical problems with the NAGB approach and questioned its results. In this report, the NAGB…

One possible reason for ambiguous findings regarding changes in work skills is the way work skills are defined and measured. Five conceptual bases for defining work skills are illustrated in the research literature: abilities of individuals, behavior requirements of jobs, ability requirements of jobs, behaviors exhibited at work, and abilities…

This report explores the issues and concerns related to the development of a process to assess college student learning. Its primary focus is the attainment of National Education Goal 5.5 by the year 2000 which reads, "The proportion of college graduates who demonstrate an advanced ability to think critically, communicate effectively, and…

Washington State's model curriculum for competency-based adult education in English as a Second Language prescribes educational and performance objectives for two levels of instruction and offers suggestions for instructional activities and student assessment. The curriculum is based on core competencies in five areas: listening/observing;…

Issues of the relative costs of multiple choice tests and alternative types of assessment are explored. Before alternative assessments in large-scale or small-scale programs are used, attention must be given to cost considerations and the resources required to develop and implement the assessment. Major categories of cost to be considered are…

This packet contains a set of assessment activities to identify gifted and talented children at the kindergarten level, based on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. The six assessments measure linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and interpersonal/intrapersonal intelligence. For each assessment,…

In fall, 1991, La Frontera Center, the Tucson Council for Alcohol and Drug Dependence, and the Community Organization for Drug Abuse Control were funded to carry out an educational program to reduce alcohol and other drug abuse in the Tucson, Arizona area. The resulting project, Pasos Adelante (Steps Forward), is an early intervention…

This study was conducted to help teachers decide what factors govern high school students' knowledge of geography. Information was gathered about the students' background, including: gender, exposure to a course of study in world history, overall grade point average, travel experience outside the United States, and habits of reading newspapers and…

Selected program evaluations through the GENeric Evaluation SYStem (GENESYS) of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District are reviewed. GENESYS, implemented in 1988-89, consists basically of a database methodology assessing the school system's longitudinal databases and a set of computer programs using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) to…

The purpose of a study was to demonstrate the value of multiple evaluation perspectives in the development, implementation, and revision of a series of workshops conducted for inservice teachers. In the Animals in the Classroom Program, the content of the workshop concerned a highly charged issue: the appropriate and humane care and use of animals…