Background: There is worldwide interest in improving the effectiveness of teachers and teaching. This paper considers two strands of that interest. It revisits the impact of using enhanced feedback from teachers to pupils as a way of improving attainment, and it looks at the feasibility of teachers using research evidence to create their own…

Minnesotans value education. Education is the largest financial investment in the state budget, and those investments place Minnesota students among the top performers in the nation. Still, substantial gaps in opportunity and performance persist. The three purposes of the needs assessment were to: (1) Describe infrastructure, capacity, and costs…

In spring 2013, the Washington Center administered a national survey to find what campuses assessed when they assessed their learning community programs, how they assessed those outcomes, and what they did with the results. Sixty-six campuses responded to the survey. Most campuses assess at least one measure of student success (pass rates, course…

Effective teaching has long been an issue of national concern, but in recent years focus on the effectiveness of programs to produce high-quality teachers has sharpened. Long-standing achievement gaps persist despite large-scale legislative changes at the federal and state levels, and American students continue to show poorer performance on…

Business students are increasingly seeking international experience in short-term, study abroad programs to enhance their intercultural knowledge, intercultural communication skills, and global perspectives to be more competitive in the global arena. Intuitively, universities initiating these programs and the students sojourning abroad believe in…

This report presents the results of a field test conducted in the Atlanta Public School System during the 1972-73 school year. The test attempted to determine what effects the introduction into a school system of specially prepared information on the relative achievement levels of schools and grades serving students of similar economic levels…

Elementary school principals rated attitudes and behaviors concerning the utilization of student achievement data: (1) commitment to influencing student achievement; (2) control in utilizing student achievement data; (3) use of data to evaluate programs and teachers; (4) effectiveness and accountability in use of data; and (5) principals' own…

The article proposes that the key to tracking and evaluating the academic progress of college students, particularly at complex institutions, is development of a longitudinal tracking system with flexibility to support a diverse community of users and applications. Considerations for efficient maintenance and effective use of such a system are…

This report describes a project undertaken at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) between January 1, 1982 and March 31, 1984, which was designed to increase the use in program assessment and in program improvement of information derived from measures of: (1) student achievement in general education; (2) student achievement in the major…

In a 1979 survey, the majority of the 73% responding superintendents and 38% responding school board chairmen in 269 randomly chosen small school districts across the nation indicated that program evaluation activity occurred in their districts and that evaluation information was generally desired by and available to the school board.…

A prototype manual Instructional Support System for Occupational Education (ISSOE) student reporting system (SRS) developed in 1977-78 (see note) was field tested to determine the feasibility of collecting data on student progress from teachers, processing it at a central location, and returning student informational forms to teachers and…

This report describes efforts to develop and implement a technique for using information on school performance as a tool in improving planning and management within a large urban school system. The Urban Institute and the Atlanta schools are attempting to demonstrate a technique for grouping schools on the basis of their student composition,…

Tennessee initiated a Career Ladder Program for teachers in July 1984. The program is designed to recruit, retain, and reward outstanding teachers. Teachers who obtain upper career ladder status receive financial rewards ranging from 2,000 to 7,000 dollars per year. This status is achieved by participation in a comprehensive evaluation process.…

The more commonly cited uses of state and local district assessment programs are addressed. The implications of seven proposed uses of state assessment data are reviewed point-by-point: (1) allocating state grants-in-aid to alleviate weaknesses in instructional programs; (2) designing instructional support programs for teachers; (3) developing…

Many of the evaluations summarized in state and local Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I reports have been negatively affected by methodological errors or the use of different, incompatible formats. Although new, detailed evaluation and reporting procedures have been developed for Title I research projects, two problems remain:…