Schools have come under sharp criticism for their apparent ineffectiveness in reading instruction, due to interpretations of recent functional literacy survey results. Several of the major surveys are examined in this document, and in some cases their data are reanalyzed to answer additional questions. The conclusion reached from this examination…

This is the technical report of a national survey of approximately 10,000 teachers, principals, superintendents, and state and local district supervisors. The report includes a description of the sample design, instrument development, examples of the survey forms, data collection, file preparation, and analysis procedures used in the survey as…

The School Program Bonanza Game is an approach to conducting a needs assessment. It differs somewhat from other needs assessment packages in that it attempts to provide a needs assessment concerning the overall purposes or goals of the school. In essence, the game asks people to choose a mix of variables from a range of competing alternatives. The…

In behalf of the Kettering Foundation, a nine-month study by the Delphi technique was undertaken to identify projects or action programs in the public interest which might be supported at a total funding level of 1/2 to 5 million dollars. To elicit and process ideas and information three successive questionnaires were sent to 43 persons in various…

The report describes a project designed to evaluate the effectiveness of career awareness instruction in the Bethel District (Oregon) elementary schools' World of Work program. Teachers from each grade level developed formats for the evaluation instruments which were administered to students, with the results in turn being evaluated by an…

Since 1970, the Servicio National de Desarrollo de la Comunidad (SNDC) has been in existence as an autonomous decentralized government agency. Its main effort has been to integrate Bolivia's 3.4 million rural inhabitants, the "campesinos," into the mainstream of national socioeconomic programs through self-help development projects at…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is an information-gathering project that surveys the educational attainments of 9-year-olds, 13-year-olds, 17-year-olds, and adults (ages 26-35) in various learning areas. All areas are assessed by a group of educators who design objectives for each area and create measurement tools…

A series of studies carried out by the Advisory Committee on Academic Planning (ACAP) published by the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) dealt with a planning study of doctoral work in engineering that was conducted in several parts corresponding to the various disciplines within engineering. This document, which is one part of that study,…

The United Federation of Teachers in New York City prefers to define accountability in terms that are appropriate both educationally and politically. The concept of accountability envisioned by the late Henry Dyer and nurtured by Fred McDonald and Garli A. Forehand of the Education Testing Service, with its problem solving rather than punitive…

A report is given on two years' experience in using the Anchor Test Study (ATS) norms, developed by the Educational Testing Service under contract to the U.S. Office of Education as part of the Washington State Assessment program. In the first year, the desire to develop a state reading achievement profile through the application of the ATS norm…

The pros and cons of using behavioral objectives, the merits of norm-referenced versus objective-referenced tests, and the virtues of sampling versus census testing are familiar topics in evaluation literature. Far less common is practical information on how to implement objective-referenced testing, particularly the large-scale testing required…

This guide was constructed to meet the need of superintendents for easily accessible information for more intelligent decision-making and for a process for gathering information necessitated by impending Texas Education Agency accreditation visits. It was designed to be functional, yet brief, and to be flexible so that it can be used by various…

A model is presented for the categorizing of alternative schools, then the nature of the free school, which represents the essence of the alternative school movement, is examined. Strengths and weaknesses of court, legislative, and administrative approaches to resolve governance issues are set forth. This is followed by an analysis of three…

Quality of instruction and adequacy of program were examined in a survey of students selected by major areas of concentration. A stratified random sample of 330 students was selected from the student directory, with 55 people chosen in each of the broad major areas: science, social science, humanities, education, music, and business. Telephone…

A historical review of higher education is offered, with mention made of particular individual contributors in the field. The significance of the historical continuum is related to the function of post-secondary education. It is suggested that colleges and universities perform many functions for society, including educating students, investigating…