This study followed 10 Florida cohorts with different levels of education over a period of 3 years to determine outcomes of employment, continuing education status, level of public assistance, incarceration or probation status, and military assistance. Information for the study was derived from the Florida Education and Training Placement…

To measure and report on the extent and quality of students' understanding of geography, the National Geographic Society initiated and provided support for a national assessment of students 17 years old and in the 12th grade. Since 1969, the Nation's Report Card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), has been responsible for…

To ensure effective evaluation, classroom teachers should have consistent views of the nature of educational measurement and evaluation. An 11-component model of educational measurement and evaluation was developed from a literature review. Based on this model, an instrument, the Conceptualization of Educational Measurement and Evaluation Scale…

Many young adolescents, possibly as many as half, feel boxed in and bored in their middle schools. Research suggests that schools, parents, and the rest of the community must do more to make middle schools places where young adolescents thrive. In spite of the emergence of the junior high school and later the middle school in the 20th century,…

This newsletter includes six articles related to the Regional Resource and Federal Centers for Special Education Network and its efforts in the area of standards and accountability. In "Teacher Training and Skills: Necessary Ingredients for Standards and Accountability," John Copenhaver discusses ways in which the Regional Resource and…

This newsletter introduces the 1994 NAEP U.S. history assessment, which tested a representative sample of 22,000 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students across the United States. This issue presents a context for understanding the U.S. history assessment. The newsletter is divided into the following sections: (1) "The NAEP U.S. History…

This report is a first look at the results of the 1994 NAEP U.S. History Assessment. It presents national findings of 4th-, 8th-, and 12-grade students' overall performance and summary data for the major demographic subpopulations in the United States. Results are reported on a 500-point scale, used to show comparisons and trends over time, and…

Despite the many limitations of standardized tests, schools use them to determine if children are ready for school, to group students for instruction, to diagnose learning disabilities and other handicaps, and to guide and control the curriculum and teaching methods. No test is good enough to serve as the sole or primary basis for important…

School culture has recently emerged as a framework for the study and interpretation of the structure and development of schools. A work culture productivity model is described, and the development of a culture instrument is reported. The concept of school work culture, a subset of systems culture, refers to the collective work patterns of a…

Approaches to equitable performance standards and assessment are discussed with three points of focus. First, the work of the National Education Goals Panel is described, with particular attention to Goal 3, Student Achievement and Citizenship, and the Panel's efforts to establish world-class standards of performance. National standards are…

National standards and assessments are being proposed as a strategy for improving schools in the United States. However, proposed federal policies for implementation raise serious concerns about the extent to which national standards and assessments alone will help improve the quality of public education for all, or whether they will serve to…

The College Outcome Measures Program (COMP) and its role in an era when standardized testing is being questioned and authentic assessment is championed are discussed. Authentic assessment should not mean discarding measurement expertise and existing technology. It is an approach to measuring the quality and level of performance that uses real…

In September 1991, the State Board of Community Colleges of North Carolina revised this report on the critical success factors for the state's community college system. The six factors examined in the report are quality, access, education continuum, workforce development, community services, and program management and accountability. The report…

This document provides an overview of the status of public education in Utah for the year 1992-1993. Chapter 1 provides a general description of the state structures that organize and control public education and identifies significant trends and developments that will affect these structures. Chapter 2 describes Utah's demographic characteristics…

This fastback reference analyzes contrasting opinions about educational assessment and testing in the light of available evidence. The reform of student assessment is an essential component of the revitalization of American schools. Accountability issues relate to the proliferation of testing and the increasing use of high-stakes tests for policy…