This document is a 2000 follow-up of the long-term progress of the Johnson County Community College (JCCC) Career Program. The study targeted 377 graduates, certificate recipients, and students from 1995-96 who had completed the JCCC Career Program. Of the 377, 124 surveys were returned by mail and 168 surveys were completed via telephone…

This book offers methods on how to cultivate and capture teacher expertise--one of the most grossly underused assets in education. These methods are simple and include goal-oriented, data-driven collaboration and ongoing assessment that can lead to an array of effective innovations and strategies to enhance school effectiveness. Five case-study…

This document is a narrative summary of an institutional effectiveness survey administered in the fall of 2000 at Cerritos College (California). The survey was designed to assess satisfaction with the institution. Administered to help meet the accreditation standards set by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), the survey…

During the fall of 2001, the Office of Institutional Research at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) surveyed employers of 1999-2000 graduates. The purpose of this survey was to evaluate employer satisfaction with the job performance and general skills of PVCC graduates, as well as assess the effectiveness of the college's academic…

The Vermont Institute for Science, Math and Technology (VISMT) was established in 1992 as a nonprofit organization to implement a $9.6 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded to the Vermont Department of Education. The goal of the project is to dramatically transform science, math, and technology education for all…

This collection presents 92 papers or summaries of papers presented at a 2000 conference on self-study and institutional improvement for institutions of higher education. Papers are grouped into these chapters, with some sample topics in parentheses: (1) "Regional and National Initiatives" (associate degrees; adult learning); (2) "Quality…

Few states have overcome the political and practical obstacles to implementing a clear, feasible, comprehensive accountability system. The University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education reviewed experiences from state accountability efforts. Workable accountability systems focus on results, clarify goals and roles, and…

The 1990s brought a new notion of accountability for public colleges and universities. The goal shifted from accounting for expenditures to accounting for results. Academics, who were now expected to set goals and evaluate results while cutting costs, opposed the application of this model to academia. Public higher education had adopted Austin's…

With pressure to find more cost effective and less labor-intensive approaches to testing, states are seeing computer-based testing as a way to address the increasingly challenging prospect of assessing all students in a state at nearly all grades. Unfortunately, most states have not specifically considered the needs of students with disabilities.…

For many years the school system in the United States has measured success by the number of dollars spent, computers and textbooks purchased, and programs created. Moreover, the measures of success have not focused on academic achievement. Since 1965, American taxpayers have spent more than $321 billion in federal funds on kindergarten through…

This article introduces original annual average years of schooling measures for each state from 1840 to 2000. The paper also combines original data on real state per-worker output with existing data to provide a more comprehensive series of real state output per worker from 1840 to 2000. These data show that the New England, Middle Atlantic,…

The local assessment moderation process is described in terms of Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP) teachers' roles in the process of student evaluation and the subsequent use of that data for program evaluation. Teachers engaged in local assessment moderation function as a community of judgment, and this task engagement…

During the 1995-96 academic year, the Hartford (Connecticut) Public School System (Connecticut) published "Academic Area Outcomes, PreKindergarten-Grade 12," a document that initiated a process of improvement of teaching, learning, and curriculum revision based on continuous assessment and accountability. Creation of this document was…

This analysis addresses two important questions regarding appropriate uses of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) statewide average test score comparisons. First is whether NAEP state test score averages provide meaningful and valid comparisons of the relative educational quality or proficiency of specific states. The other…

One critical area of concern for governments of small states is the provision and administration of examinations at the end of the secondary school cycle. The problems, faced by all states, of assuring that assessment and certification are carried out fairly, are compounded for small states by the additional difficulties associated with their…