The document presents the final report of the Assessment and Improvement of Related Services (AIRS) Project, an effort to assess the impact and effectiveness of special education related services in Hawaii. Each of the four project objectives focused on accomplishment of one of the evaluation types specified in the Context-Input-Process-Product…

To address the issue of how effectively speech communication instructors can be trained to develop longitudinal, "value-added" skills in their students one must first ask if they "should" be trained for such a task. One advantage is that it might be strategic for communication programs to initiate value-added testing so faculty…

Although the topic of effective schools is a popular one among today's educators, researchers, and publishers, there still is no commonly agreed upon definition of an effective school. One definition given by Ronald Edmonds and Lawrence Lezotte is notably precise, measurable, attainable, and easy to determine. They defined an effective school as…

This report examines the progress of Maryland's Joint Coordinating Committee for Occupational Education Programs in developing a systematic procedure for the evaluation of the quality of occupational programs in Maryland's community colleges. After presenting the 1976 resolution which established the joint committee of the Maryland State Board for…

During the 1985-86 school year, an evaluation plan utilizing standardized norm-referenced test information was initiated within the Wichita Public School System in Kansas. The plan had four identifiable factors: (1) a growth measurement concept; (2) a simplified computation process; (3) a means of integration of growth measurement within user…

Definitions, issues, and concerns in efforts to document the quality and outcomes of undergraduate education are reviewed, and the University of Arizona assessment model is summarized to illustrate a comprehensive assessment plan suitable for a research university. The Arizona model is adapted to architectural education, and the special…

The development of the Tennessee school system Commissioner's Report Card (CRC) and the School Report Card--later named the Tennessee School Improvement Project (TSIP)--is described. The report card project began in 1984 when statewide mandated achievement testing was introduced. The first CRC included limited results of such testing. The first…

The assessment process outlined in this guidebook was designed to provide an overall plan and structure for the ongoing review and updating of all undertakings in the Yosemite Community College District (YCCD). First, an overview of the assessment process outlines its three major elements: the basic information system; periodic reviews conducted…

Needs assessment, a procedure for obtaining and analyzing information for use in decision-making, consists of identifying the concerns of faculty, staff, parents, students, and community, and validating these concerns (which only then become "needs") by means of information derived from surveys and school records. The Worldwide Needs…

To achieve universal primary education by the year 2000, the Sudanese government found that it would have to do substantial research into the varying local conditions affecting the implementation of national educational programs. Two steps that could help ensure the effectiveness of national efforts are (1) involving local and regional personnel…

This review focuses on microcomputer software designed to improve the writing skills of students of English as a Second Language (ESL) at the college level. It presents a case for the use of computers in teaching ESL, provides guidelines and suggestions for evaluating or creating software and programs, and reviews representative software,…

The Early Prevention of School Failure Program (EPSF) was initiated in Peotone, Illinois, in 1971. The stated purpose was to prevent school failure through early identification and remediation of developmental learning deficiencies in four- to six-year-old children. The project components were team screening, team conference, education planning,…

This investigation documents the impact of the Van Leer Study, a large-scale evaluation study of achievement in the primary schools of Israel. It is intended to increase understanding of the process of evaluation utilization, showing how evaluation findings and other kinds of information can work together, over time and in a variety of ways, to…

Quantitative assessment instruments have been developed to identify those skills or behaviors which individuals with developmental disabilities need in order to become competitively employed, and to measure individuals' progress in the program and hence measure program effectiveness. Such assessment instruments are problematic, as each employment…

Fitchburg State College's Assessment Week and Annual Development Day are described in this report. Developed in 1976 at this Massachusetts liberal arts college, Assessment Week involves a gathering of the community to discuss pressing issues and future directions. It occurs every 10 years and consists of a 4-day, in-house conference having…