The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is developing a certification process, rather than a test, to confer distinction on experienced teachers who meet demanding standards. The role of performance assessment in this voluntary certification is discussed, and the research goals of the NBPTS are described. (SLD)

Describes efforts of three official metadata standards-setting bodies. Discusses the three categories of metadata formats; metadata registries; the Dublin Core and its relatives; several geospatial and biological metadata projects; and vocabularies/data element content. Provides a list of links to metadata projects and resources. (AEF)

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, standards-based reform has taken center stage in the educational arena. Although standard setting and accountability issues affect every facet of education, the challenges of implementing such a movement are greater in contexts such as urban special education. This article highlights some of the…

Sadly, technical support doesn't come cheap. One money-saving strategy that's gained popularity among school technicians is equipment and software standardization. When it works, standardization can be very effective. However, standardization has its drawbacks. This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of standardization.

The 1996 American Evaluation Association conference in Atlanta featured a session on strategies to promote monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs). At that time, there was a lengthy list of proposed initiatives to be undertaken in CARE. With the perspective of hindsight and reviewing the…

We know how to address individual learning, but what are the characteristics of organizational learning? How can you tell if your organization is adaptable and changing? Ten characteristics describe organizations that are learning, and examples show each characteristic in practice.

What do the National Staff Development Council's standards look like in practice for teachers, principals, central office staff, superintendents, and board members? Newly developed Innovation Configurations help everyone on the list understand where they fall along the continuum of effective practices aligned to the standards.

Posters are commonly used as tools for disseminating information at scientific meetings, but many students lack an understanding of "good" poster characteristics. We present a set of characteristics for use in constructing posters for scientific meetings and classroom presentations along with tips on critiquing posters to enhance their…

Effective school leadership is key to students' academic success. But the development of effective school leadership has been seriously hampered by the lack of technically sound tools to assess and monitor leaders' performance. With support from The Wallace Foundation, a team from Vanderbilt has been developing such an assessment system, and this…

Nebraska, like most states in the U.S., is facing a critical shortage of skilled and employable workers. Business and industry want to grow in Nebraska and realize the road to ensuring success is a workforce possessing updated knowledge and skills that support the use of new technologies, as well as a necessary work ethic to be a dependable and…

There is a growing emphasis on the right to and the benefits of education for young people within refugee camps. The benefits include physical and cognitive protection as well as the promotion of a sense of normalcy and feelings of hope. Minimum standards for refugee youth have been developed, which the authors argue should be used by not only by…

This paper provides a critical analysis of New Zealand's Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF). The first section sketches the development and implementation of the PBRF. The second section evaluates the scheme, concentrating on three themes: the relationship between privatization, competition and research performance; the standardization of…

This paper looks at using descriptions of subject matter content to assist in the development and interpretation of student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). These descriptions of content, called achievement level descriptions (ALDs), were initially conceptualized as exemplary statements of the knowledge and…

Outlines a framework for considering the validity of standards-based score interpretations and then considers the potential roles of different stakeholder groups and other participants in that process. Suggests study of a new standard-setting method, the "briefing book," which would describe alternative cut scores. (SLD)

In a coherent educational assessment system, the relation between the cut scores across the grades of a content area should reflect the goals of the educational system moderated by the state of the standards within that system. In this article, we discuss the need for consistent cut scores across the grades of a content area; we present and…