Public education is threatened as it struggles to keep up with the pace of change in American society. School systems are change prone but are not good at transforming change into improved performance. This book sheds light on why and what might be done about it. Part 1 offers an overview of the current situation in U.S. public schools and…

The purpose of this guide is to articulate a set of questions and issues that campus leaders can review when deciding whether to participate in a given survey or use a specific assessment instrument. The guide also describes some of the major national surveys and assessments. Although the guide does not rate or recommend these services, it…

When used proactively and comprehensively, assessment can be a powerful tool for evaluating the effectiveness of existing programs and practices and for identifying areas for institutional enhancement. This paper describes using the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) and Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) surveys for campus…

This document is a summary of Cypress College's Student Satisfaction Inventory, a nationally normed instrument used to measure student satisfaction on a range of college experiences. Just fewer than 500 students at Cypress College completed the summary in June 2001. Approximately half of the total population surveyed planned to transfer to another…

This paper describes the Work Keys system, a program developed by American College Testing (ACT) to help improve the job skills of the workforce. This project is being conducted with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to examine the extent to which Work Keys assessment information can be used to address the human resources needs for three…

Although teachers may work in the same building for years, they usually have slight knowledge about what goes on in each other's classrooms. In a similar way, there is little knowledge at one school level about what happens at other levels. This book presents a way for teachers to make maps as a way to communicate about curriculum development.…

Instructional assessment is a systematic approach to solving student academic, behavioral, and social-emotional problems by identifying the key factors that have created or are encouraging the problem. The instructional support team (IST) process emphasizes assistance to students. Assessment in IST consists of ongoing analysis of student…

Despite their progress, most schools in Kansas' Quality Performance Accreditation (QPA) System fall short of the philosophy and practice envisioned by QPA. What has been accomplished and what remains to be done in QPA is detailed in this two-volume report. It was found that teachers working together were at the center of improvement. Schools where…

Increased attention has been given to issues of assessment in recent years. Teachers of mathematics have been working to change both the way they elicit evidence of their students' mathematical thinking and the way they use that evidence to monitor students' progress and guide instructional decision making. This publication is based on work done…

In 1998 the Kentucky legislature directed the state's Board of Education to redesign the assessment and accountability system. As a result, the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) was developed. Because of the major changes in the system, trend lines cannot be drawn to the previous assessment, the Kentucky Instructional Results…

Incorporating both educational assessment and service-learning prerogatives, a study examined a communications curriculum implementing service-learning to determine if the service-learning method was accomplishing its full potential. Through an evaluation based on six categories of service-learning objectives (intellectual-, skills, and affective…

This study examined the general nature of school-based student assessment in a small sample (five elementary and three middle schools and one high school). It relies on descriptive analyses and the presentation of data obtained during site visits. The schools have been separated into those with well-developed student assessment systems and those…

Under the direction of the Superintendent of Schools, a comprehensive needs assessment of Hawaii's public school system was conducted from September 1998 through February 1999. This final report contains the findings of the needs assessment, together with integrative conclusions that report the major findings in a way that will provide the…

This document describes the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) Core Indicators for the Perkins III Core Performance Standards and Measures. Core indicators and measures include: (1) student attainment, measured by academic and technical skills; (2) completion, measured by graduation rate; (3) placement and persistence, measured by placement,…

This report describes Truckee Meadows Community College's (Nevada) environmental scanning process and results. The college decided that environmental scanning and forecasting techniques should be used to plan for both short-term and long-term external factors that impact programs, enrollment, and budgets. Strategic goals include: (1) keeping pace…