Every year, across the country, a dangerously high percentage of students--disproportionately poor and minority--disappear from the educational pipeline before graduating from high school. Nationally, only about 68% of all students who enter 9th grade will graduate "on time" with regular diplomas in 12th grade. While the graduation rate…

If you've ever questioned the logic of reducing a student's entire academic performance to a single test score or a vague letter grade, then here's a book that will revolutionize the way you think about assessment and grading. Drawing from years of in-depth research, Robert J. Marzano provides you with guidelines and steps for designing a…

This report provides the latest available data and analysis of California's teaching workforce and the challenges confronting the state's educators and policy-makers. While the report finds progress toward reducing the shortage of teachers, it raises concerns about low student achievement and the implications for the state's ability to meet the…

Alternate assessment acts as a mechanism for inclusion in large-scale educational assessments for those students with disabilities who cannot participate in regular state and district assessments, even with accommodations and modifications. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Improvement Act…

This report marks the eighth analysis conducted by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) of the public reporting of state assessment results for students with disabilities. This is the third analysis that NCEO has conducted since the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Overall, a total of 48 states reported some…

Career and technical education is a critical component of a number of Federal education and training initiatives that are designed to help support the development of a 21st Century workforce. Career and technical education is unique in that it fuses challenging academic curricula with relevant skill training in order to prepare secondary and…

This needs assessment instrument contains indicators of recommended practice for serving infants and toddlers with disabilities in inclusive natural settings. It is designed to be used by early intervention personnel, child care providers, early childhood teachers, early Head Start providers, and others who wish to identify their needs for…

How do teachers respond to the competing pressures of school accountability, high-stakes testing, classroom assessment and instruction? This updated collection of articles from The Reading Teacher can help. Readers will find tools for: (1) Building school assessment policies; (2) Helping students succeed on high-stakes tests; (3) Using assessment…

This study investigated the relationship between the scales used for the NMSBA assessments and the RIT scales used to report performance on Northwest Evaluation Association tests. The study estimated the changes in reading and mathematics RIT score equivalents for the NMSBA performance levels in those subjects. Test records for more than 17,000…

Each of the four issues of the newsletter of the Texas Association for the Gifted focuses on a theme: leadership, evaluation and assessment, curriculum issues, and accountability issues. Issues usually contain theme-related major articles, columns by the Association's president and executive director, a column examining related research, answers…

This paper presents the results of the 2001 Student Satisfaction Inventory for Western Iowa Tech Community College (WITCC). Twenty-six course sections with an enrollment of 432 students were randomly sampled from the College's data system. Instructors administered the survey to all students in attendance during their class periods. A total of 259…

This paper reports on a survey of the perceptions of 86 state-level educational assessment personnel or other professionals involved in educational assessment regarding different ways in which test scores are influenced by accommodations for participants with disabilities and how scores obtained under accommodated conditions should be treated in…

This report is the fifth analysis of state reports to examine the extent to which states publicly report information about students with disabilities in statewide assessments. The report describes statewide testing systems and evaluates whether these systems include participation and performance information for students with disabilities. It finds…

This is a report on the 2000 Yearly Evaluation of Services by Students (YESS) survey administered by Howard Community College (HCC) (Maryland) to assess student satisfaction with college services and other aspects of the campus environment. The YESS survey has been administered since 1991. In 2000, 991 out of 2,215 students responded to the survey…

This report discusses the pitfalls and success of distance learning programs. The report covers instructional alternatives of telecourse, linked courses, computer-aided learning, correspondence courses, and audio/video instruction. Sixteen concerns for distance learning programs are identified; for example: (1) registration procedures for distance…