A parallel may be drawn between pressure to perform in sports and pressures on schools to perform. Schools, like athletes, are often tempted to use artificial performance-enhancing substances. Application of such measures (prescribed standards, devolution, and fads) leads to undesirable consequences. Alternatives are suggested. (Contains 26…

The potentially huge number of questions in a national database offers the opportunity for open testing where each student has his own test and can take the test in his own time, saving on supervision and PCs. (Author/ASK)

Discusses the leadership role of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the inclusion of special-needs students in large-scale assessments. (Author)

Discusses the kinds of abilities and knowledge that are measured in investigative performance assessment tasks in science. Questions the emphasis placed on the assessment of problem-solving and higher-order skills and calls for a rationale for performance assessment in the dimension of "scientific argumentation." (SLD)

Reviews the assessment practices of a classroom teacher using a different focus. Discusses the reasons for assessment, what needs to be assessed, and managing the assessment recording and reporting. (ASK)

The "University-Level Environment Questionnaire" (ULEQ) was field-tested and validated on a sample of 489 academics from 52 departments in 28 Australian universities. The final form of the ULEQ consists of 42 items assigned to seven scales: Academic Freedom, Concern for Undergraduate Learning, Concern for Research and Scholarship,…

Discusses the findings of a parent and teacher survey about communicating children's school progress, noting a mutual dissatisfaction with standardized test scores. Discusses the information parents want, ways to improve teacher-parent communication, and questions teachers should ask themselves about their assessments of students. (JPB)

Longitudinal data about individual students and groups of students can be used to track their progress in ways that hold district-level administrators, school principals, and teachers responsible for what's happening in schools. The key is to examine data that show how well individual students perform in specific classrooms in specific schools.…

Describes an education reform consisting of a science education curriculum of which environmental education has become an integral part to emphasize higher order thinking skills and connections to the world beyond the classroom. Discusses instruction, assessment, and organization of school sites with this reform. (ASK)

Since the mid 1990s of last Century, university rankings have become very popular in China. Six institutions have published such rankings; some of them have also detailed their ranking methodologies. This paper features a general introduction to university ranking in China, and to the methodologies of each ranking discussed. The paper also…

This commentary reviews "Negotiating Researcher Roles in Ethnographic Program Evaluation" and discusses the changing field of evaluation. It situates postmodern deliberations in evaluation anthropology and ethnoevaluation, two concepts that explore the interdisciplinary merger in evaluation, ethnography, and anthropology. Reflecting on Hymes's…

This article draws on a survey of 83 teachers, to explore the concepts of 'assessment for learning', 'assessment' and 'learning'. 'Assessment for learning' is categorized as meaning: monitoring pupils' performance against targets or objectives; using assessment to inform next steps in teaching and learning; teachers giving feedback for…

This paper reports the initial results of a study that was designed to develop and test an instrument that could identify the elements of an individual's capacity for lifelong learning. We anticipated that the components of this capacity would include a complex mix of dispositions, lived experiences, social relations, values, attitudes and beliefs…

One of the top questions about the No Child Left Behind Act, both before and after its passage, was "why isn't adequate yearly progress based on growth rather than just on year-to-year snapshots?" Now, three years into the implementation of this sweeping federal education law, the winds of change are blowing in Washington, and the use of…

The slippery downhill slide of geography as a taught subject in Tasmanian schools is a lamentable case of lost opportunity. Curriculum reforms reported in previous Forum papers for IRGEE (Robertson, 2003a, 2003b) highlight the time lag in responses to these changes by geography educators. Perhaps because they have steadfastly held to the belief…