Most teachers have been good students. Some students are fast learners and attain the required knowledge and skills easily; others are obedient, hard workers. In either case, teachers are likely to believe that if students really try, they will do well. Listening to students over many years, the author has learned that this is probably not true.…

This document, which is intended as a guide for work force preparation program providers, details the Illinois occupational skill standards for programs preparing students for employment in occupations in the court reporter/captioner cluster. The document begins with a brief overview of the Illinois perspective on occupational skill standards and…

From July 1995 through September 2001, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the Ford Foundation (Ford) operated a demonstration of the Quantum Opportunity Program (QOP). QOP offered intensive and comprehensive services to help at-risk youth graduate from high school and enroll in postsecondary education or training. QOP was mainly an…

Educators and policymakers have accomplished much over the past decade, aided by parents and taxpayers. California has set a high bar for what all children are expected to learn, from kindergarten forward. Instructional materials and tests are now closely aligned, so that teachers know how to gauge their students' progress. And achievement growth…

This report is an executive summary of two previously-released reports presenting findings from Wave 2: The Academic Achievement and Functional Performance of Youth with Disabilities and After High School: A First Look at the Postschool Experiences of Youth with Disabilities. Some key findings presented in the Overview include the following: (1) A…

This article describes the use of a schematic model for developing and distributing online surveys. Two empirical studies that developed and implemented online surveys to collect data to measure satisfaction in various aspects of human resource development and adult education exemplify the use of the model to conduct online survey research. The…

Background: Underachievement among boys and particular ethnic groups is a major challenge to the education system. Purpose: This paper reports on one local education authority's attempts to address this concern by investigating the characteristics of its schools demonstrating success with the groups causing most concern: black Caribbean, black…

New information and communications technologies and research in cognitive science have led to new ways to think about and implement learning environments. Among these new approaches to instruction and new methods to support learning and performance is an interest in and emphasis on complex subject matter (e.g., complex and dynamic systems…

Teacher candidates rated their self-perceptions of performance on the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium principles at the beginning and end of their 16-week student teaching semester to determine whether there was any significant difference between pre- and post-student-teaching self-ratings. Findings indicate that…

This report presents findings from the second year of a multi-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program and background information about the design and implementation of the District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE) program. The TEEG and DATE programs operating in Texas make up the largest state-funded performance…

In July 2001, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) agreed to the development of assessment instruments and key performance measures for reporting on student skills, knowledge and understandings in primary science. It directed the newly established Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce…

This report is one of nine detailed case studies of small urban high schools that served as the foundation for the Education Resource Strategies (ERS) report "Strategic Designs: Lessons from Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools." These nine schools were dubbed "Leading Edge Schools" because they stand apart from other high…

This study was undertaken to describe ways in which "performance oriented" teachers in Maryland communicate learning targets, elements of quality, and standards for performance to their students. Surveys were distributed to approximately 90 participants at the annual meeting of the Maryland Assessment Consortium and to 72 scoring team…

The cost of including hands-on tasks in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science assessment was analyzed. In recognition of growing interest in performance assessment in science, the framework for the NAEP science assessment called for the inclusion of hands-on tasks with hands-on activities and questions about the…

This report describes the development of a new tool for assessment research in graduate education. The tool, the Algebra Assessment System, is based on GIDE, a pre-existing program that diagnostically analyzes complex constructed responses to algebra word problems. The project had three goals. The first goal was to build a generically usable…