A Pennsylvania study analyzed the capability of the existing systems to deliver a comprehensive, articulated program of vocational education. A review of prior studies of vocational education in Pennsylvania found consensus about needed changes in the state's program. Areas of improvement included governance and administration; leadership;…

The Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) was established in 1985 to compare academic achievement among schools and districts and to give curriculum and instructional guidance. Biennially, it tests all students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies. Using a matrix sampling design, each student…

Results for the Spring 1989 Delaware Educational Assessment Program are presented. The assessment involved the administration of a newly normed test--the Stanford Achievement Test, Eighth Edition--to approximately 65,000 public school students in grades 1 through 8 and 11 during the period extending from April 5 through 18, 1989. Among other…

This third annual report on student achievement in Illinois continues the State Board of Education practice of providing a synthesis of a variety of achievement measures. Test results used for this report come from: (1) Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress (IIEP); (2) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT); (3) National Assessment of Educational…

This document describes the education legislation adopted by the 1985 Illinois General Assembly session on educational reform. An introductory overview (1) describes the process of reviewing state education mandates, beginning in 1981, which laid the foundations for the public policy discussions of the 1985 General Assembly, and (2) summarizes the…

Florida's Statewide Assessment Program of the State Department of Education has been involved in a major effort to develop adequate strategies for releasing and publishing assessment scores for schools. One dimension of this effort has been the development of predicted or "adjusted" scores. These scores compare a school to other similar…

Various topics concerning assessment in higher education are considered in five papers. In "Defining and Measuring the Competencies of a Liberal Arts Education," David G. Winter proposes that liberal arts competencies can be assessed by creative new quantitative strategies and outlines five important criteria, or standards, as well as measures of…

Since the California Assessment Program began in 1972 to provide information for evaluation of school programs in California, major changes in testing practices have occurred. Scholastic aptitude testing has been eliminated in all grades; state-designed reading and basic skills tests are administered in grades one, two, three, six, and twelve.…

In order to provide the Florida Migratory Child Compensatory Education Program with information required for determining whether and to what extent the educational needs of migrant children were being met by the present educational programs, eight study tasks were implemented. These tasks involved looking at the changes and characteristics of the…

The project provided the Arizona Migrant Child Education Program with the information needed to determine whether and to what extent the educational needs of Arizona's 10,000 migrant children were met by present educational programs. Examined were the population trends and characteristics, the educational assessment, the programs affecting the…

Inservice clinics for administrators and teachers were sponsored annually for three years by the Arizona State Department of Education, Division of Career and Vocational Education. As an aid in planning future clinics, a needs assessment was conducted of former participants. The procedures and results of the survey are presented in the report. The…

To ensure that school districts and schools meet acceptable performance levels, many school districts and states have enacted various accountability policies. Two of the most controversial approaches to accountability are reconstitutions of schools and state takeovers of school districts and schools. For each approach, this policy brief presents…

As part of a cross-national research project on literature instruction in middle-grade classrooms in Great Britain and the United States this study explored the effects of external assessment on that instruction. The focus was on the literature selected, the class time allotted, and provisions made for students' choices. The study explored the…

This paper presents the latest in a series of studies examining school district report cards for their usefulness planning and implementing school improvement. The 1992-93 Arkansas report cards were studied. These were similar to the report cards from Tennessee that were the subject of the initial study in that they used and reported a…

This resource text was developed to assist parents, teachers, school administrators, school board personnel, and other concerned citizens in their efforts to develop and implement local education standards. Having drawn heavily upon Internet-accessible resources for the development and implementation of educational standards, the text is intended…