High-quality assessments are crucial to many aspects of the educational process. They can help policymakers monitor long-term educational trends, assist state educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) in allocating resources and professional development opportunities, provide insights to teachers about how well students…

Student ratings are not leaving today or anytime soon. However, as the title of this article indicates, student ratings are not the only option to provide evidence in the evaluation of teaching. There is a broad range of alternatives to consider beyond student ratings in the delicate decision-making processes to improve teaching and determine the…

Asking college students how much they have learned or grown is a common assessment practice in student affairs and elsewhere. Unfortunately, recent research suggests that these self-reported gains do a very poor job of measuring actual student learning and growth. This paper provides an overview of the psychological process of how students likely…

"Assessment on college campuses has a sordid history, and it is fairly simple to find someone with a traumatic tale to tell. It is wise to respect that that reputation is deserved." "How do you modify the inner workings and culture of a massive institution with minimal resources and even less authority (other than GE course…

Elaborates on the article "Synthesis of Research on the Effectiveness of Intellectual Skills Programs: Snake-Oil Remedies or Miracle Cures?" by Sternberg and Bhana. Encourages the development of a theory that could provide a guide to the infusion of thinking instruction into any area of inquiry. (IW)

Reviews the research on the effectiveness of five thinking skills training programs: Instrumental Enrichment, Philosophy for Children, Structure-of-Intellect (SOI), Problem Solving and Comprehension: A Short Course in Analytical Reasoning, and Odyssey. Compares and contrasts the content of each program and describes the relative lack of adequate…

The most recent attempt by educators to emulate the "sound principles" and methods of business and science is to become data-driven. The leaders in a data-driven school are able to demonstrate how some number, preferably scores on standardized tests, has moved upward as a result of some program they have initiated. Data-driven schools also possess…

Describes and illustrates techniques for assessing productivity in colleges and universities; defines cost analysis and discusses specific techniques of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis; and discusses related issues in higher education. Use of these techniques is illustrated by a Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Massachusetts) program…

This discussion focuses on the problems involved in the interpretation and verification of the data gathered and presented by the North American Collections Inventory Project. It suggests that the National Shelflist Count is a better resource for collection management and shared library resources decisions. (CLB)

This paper provides advice to college and university administrators on issues and problems associated with the assessment and documentation of institutional effectiveness, in light of the current Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) criteria for institutional self-evaluation. Administrators need to: (1) get the attention of…

Critiques two articles appearing in the March 1986 issue of "Executive Educator"--one proposing principal evaluation by teachers, another describing exercises in an assessment center that probes principals' strengths and weaknesses. Most principals surveyed support teachers' evaluations and assessment centers which identify potential…

This manual is intended for managers of training and institutional development programs. Its objective is to provide clear and practical advice for those who conduct impact evaluations. Impact evaluation is distinguished from other types of evaluation by the area of the program on which it focuses, the assessment of the extent to which a program…

Advises principals to back up their impressions of teachers' performance by using three types of documentation: informal (logging incidents and actions during the school year), formal (classroom observations); and summative (year-end, written evaluations of each teacher's overall performance). Sound instructional leadership requires documentation…

This handbook outlines a 10-stage approach to conducting evaluations of development education programs. The introducation addresses concerns of the development education community, including the need for a defensible concept of evaluation and for evaluation guidelines for nonprofessional evaluators. Stage 1, "Identifying the…

Recent studies of the perceptions of teachers and supervisors about the benefits of teacher supervision show clear disagreement between the two groups. Supervisors see their efforts as helpful to teachers, whereas teachers consider supervision ineffectual. This document reports on research conducted to test the theory that positive…