The Mississippi Teacher Assessment Instruments (MTAIs) contain 16 teaching competencies (14 competencies measured by 3 separate instruments of the MTAI, and 2 performance standards assessed by the local district). The Teaching Plans and Materials MTAI guides assessment of beginning teachers' competence in planning instruction, selecting…

This collection of four papers examines various aspects of the transition from school to adulthood and employment for individuals with disabilities. The first paper, "An Analysis of Transition Assessment Practices: Do They Recognize Cultural Differences?" (Teresa A. Dais), discusses the need for assessment practices to meet the needs of culturally…

The Test Center of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory has published up-to-date information on the use of portfolios in assessment in this annotated bibliography. The 182 works cited in this edition include 43 new entries and 14 deletions from the 1992 edition. Articles are listed in alphabetical order by primary author and are also…

This collection presents evaluation reports on 52 Atlanta (Georgia) public schools. Critical questions and key findings are presented for each school in the areas of: (1) general descriptive characteristics, such as enrollment, student mobility, Chapter 1 services, and prior experiences of students; (2) performance-based achievement on Georgia…

In this paper, performance assessments are cast within a sampling framework. A performance assessment score is viewed as a sample of student performance drawn from a complex universe defined by a combination of all possible tasks, occasions, raters, and measurement methods. Using generalizability theory, the authors present evidence bearing on the…

The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) in Aurora (Illinois) is a pioneering educational community, the nation's only three-year publicly funded residential high school. Its mission requires the achievement of two separate goals: (1) the education of the gifted young of Illinois in science and mathematics and (2) the sharing of…

The challenge of making educational programs accessible to people with disabilities, combined with the increasing emphasis on testing and other forms of assessment, has translated into a need for accommodations in the testing and assessment of people with disabilities. Typically, test accommodations are provided for people with sensory and/or…

The aesthetic judgments of experts (casting directors and high school drama teachers), theater buffs, and novices were compared as they rated high school students' videotaped performances of Shakespearean monologues. It was hypothesized that theater buffs would represent an intermediate stage on the path to developing expertise in judging acting…

This research examined the results from direct and indirect writing assessments to determine the most effective method of discrimination. The New Jersey State Department of Education developed a test for ninth-grade students which was designed to measure the ability to apply writing mechanics to written text and to communicate effectively in…

Project-based learning offers the opportunity to apply theoretical and practical knowledge, and to develop the student's group working, and collaboration skills. In this paper we presented a design of effective computer class that implements the well-known and highly accepted project-based learning paradigm. A pre-test/post-test control group…

Some of the ways authentic writing assessment can be used in education are discussed. Using the Illinois Writing Program (IWP) as an example, this digest also looks at some of the goals, solutions, and experiences of a program that is implementing authentic writing assessment. New directions in authentic assessment are aimed at going beyond…

In the domain of performance assessment, the errors-and-omissions (EOT) test falls between a work-sample test and a simulation test. The examinee works with a sample of material from the work environment. The correct answers and the exact criteria for acceptable performance are known in advance. For this study, EOTs were used for assessing entry…

Educators are now focusing on the improvement of reasoning skills. A key to success in improving such skills will be the ability of the individual teacher to measure skills in a valid and reliable manner. This guide will help teachers acquire the needed assessment skills. Major topics include measuring thinking skills, learning to plan an…

Use of multiple data sources for evaluation of faculty performance by the DeKalb County (Georgia) School System is described. Focus is on two evaluations, the administrator evaluation and the counselor evaluation; the former has been employed longer than any other component of the evaluation system, while the latter is scheduled for its second…

From July 1995 through September 2001, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the Ford Foundation (Ford) operated a demonstration of the Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP). QOP offered intensive and comprehensive services to help at-risk youth graduate from high school and enroll in postsecondary education or training. QOP was mainly an…