Administrators can structure successful transitions to standards-based curriculum and performance assessment. By thinking about this reform initiative's implications, building opportunities for thoughtful experimentation and dialogue, and anticipating dilemmas teachers might encounter during experimentation, administrators can design responsive…

College grades are no longer accurate indicators of what students know. Ultimately, students and employers will be shortchanged and the validity of higher education endangered. Factors contributing to grade inflation include emphasis on student self-esteem, new grading schemes, competition for students. Possible solutions include raised admissions…

A decade after mathematicians began a crusade to make calculus more relevant to undergraduate students ("Reform Calculus"), a backlash threatens to derail the effort and divide the profession. Critics charge the movement has watered down mathematics courses, teaching only superficial use of skills. The debate is fierce and the stakes…

Presents an approach that brings about improvements in post-16 science by providing the opportunity for those responsible for the improvements to undertake a shared evaluation, identify effective practices, and provide encouragement to bring about change. (DDR)

Describes electronic portfolios and explains their use to relate student work to educational standards, demonstrate wider dimensions of learning, and interconnections with hyperlinks. Other topics include selecting an electronic portfolio program, including lists of vendors; components of electronic portfolios; portfolio management; and hardware…

This paper examines educational assessment systems in Canada and the United States, especially participation or nonparticipation of students with disabilities in provincial, state, or national assessments. Canada's lack of a national assessment system and U.S. lack of guidelines regarding participants and allowable accommodations for its national…

Identified teacher decisions related to achievement gains by implementing the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Standards. Results indicated that there was correlation between time span and problem solving gain as well as computation achievement gain, and the number of times teachers chose to use manipulatives to teach. (MOK)

Argues for effective self-review by science departments as a powerful tool for improving the learning environment. Recommends a variety of possible self-review methods to obtain a balance between consolidation and innovation. (DDR)

Describes the goals and structure of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and presents some of the results from a 1992 Mathematics NAEP Assessment as an example of the program's utility. Further highlights ways in which background data collected by the NAEP can be helpful in interpreting assessment results and monitoring…

Conflict over whether Dutch standardized tests and national standards are appropriate relates to goals ascribed to student evaluation (a measurement goal for selection decisions or a pedagogical goal to support learning). Interviews with Dutch secondary teachers who worked in a context that combined national standards in the final year with…

Discusses the educational reform context that gave rise to the Baltimore City-State Partnership, noting how the Partnership can inform standards-based reform efforts in other jurisdictions. Reviews the central components of standards based-reform and makes informal observations concerning the impact of the Baltimore City-State Partnership. (SM)

Notes that across the United States, a growing number of higher education institutions and local public school districts have formed school-university partnerships to improve teacher preparation and public school student achievement. Explains that performance-based standards have had a profound impact on how undergraduates are prepared to meet the…

NELLE (Networking English Language Learning in Europe) is the professional umbrella organization actively networking all forms of local, regional, national, and international organizations and activities concerning language teaching. Founded to prepare for the European Union, NELLE now links 45 organizations in 22 countries. Aims include…

Discusses the connection of service learning competencies to nationally recognized beginning teacher standards, such as Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), providing two examples of strategies that various teacher education programs have used to infuse service learning pedagogy into courses while addressing INTASC…

This article discusses using performance based assessment in the social studies classroom. The intent is to show how performance assessment in a social studies classroom can be the basis for providing integrated social science instruction using state standards to address student academic diversity. Elements of classroom performance assessments are…