This paper examines recent reforms in Mexican higher education identifying positive changes and continuing problems. An overview of the reforms of the 1990s shows shifts in two significant areas. First, funding has increased overall, but priorities have shifted, with funds for higher education and research increasing at a lesser rate than those…

The revised standards used by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) embody several departures from past standards. One difference is that they oblige units to focus on the knowledge bases pertinent to professional preparation for education. The concept of knowledge bases is explored, and implications for the construct…

The impact of cultural variables on the clinical and personality assessment of Asian Americans is discussed, with emphasis on Chinese Americans. Any assessment procedures must take into account the diversity of Asian Americans, who belong to more than 29 distinct subgroups that are heterogeneous in language, religion, custom, degree of…

This report assesses the current state of the art of personnel performance appraisal in education to provide guidelines for new initiatives and developments in the use of personnel evaluation systems in Ontario schools. It is organized in such a way that the major issues related to performance appraisal are presented in the order in which an…

This document is comprised of the two 2001 issues of a newsletter of the Harvard Family Research Project, designed to share new ideas and experiences in evaluating systems reform and comprehensive child and family services. The first issue focuses on strategic communications and efforts of nonprofit agencies to evaluate strategic communication…

Reveals shortcomings of elementary school evaluation and norm-referenced tests (NRTs) by studying the linkages between mathematics attainment of 130 inner-city high school students and their formative evaluation and between elementary NRTs and Scholastic Aptitude Test mathematics scores. (SLD)

Maintains that radical shifts in employment, technology, and education place a new emphasis on individual effort and responsibility. Argues that these circumstances mandate a more in-depth and widespread adoption of student self-evaluation. Posits self-evaluation models for elementary and junior high school grades. (MJP)

Systems of care (SOCs) have been developed throughout the country to meet the needs of children with severe emotional disturbances (SED) and their families. In these SOCs, multiple agencies and disciplines are expected to work together with informal community supports to address families' needs (Stroul & Friedman, 1986a). A review of the…

Through offering insight into different approaches to quality assurance, with input from those who provide leadership in post-secondary education in British Columbia and Canada, this project's goal is to recommend whether Canadian jurisdictions should consider a new quality assurance regime, and to provide potential new models to consider in that…

Since educational statistics, which are relatively easy to obtain, can only attempt to measure "quality," this paper asks how quality in higher education is assessed and how educational rankings, which are defined as benchmarks or attempts to measure, contribute to this process. The paper notes that while attempts to rank institutions of…

Using a qualitative approach, documents were reviewed and teachers, peer evaluators, instructional supervisors, and administrators were interviewed in order to evaluate the effectiveness of peer evaluation programs in three school districts. Specifically, this study examines peer involvement in the summative evaluation of teachers in three school…

Recent work in small-group computer-based training (CBT) reveals that the approach does not necessarily lead to higher achievement. Many of the studies, however, have methodological weaknesses. If proper guidance and structure can be provided to group members, using small group CBT should lead to higher achievement than individual CBT. (Contains…

Maintains that the standardized teacher/course evaluation form has become a ritual at virtually every major U.S. university. Argues that many good teachers are unrewarded, ineffective ones win prizes, and the evaluation process is a means of monitoring political orthodoxy. (CFR)

The importance of feedback as an aid to self-assessment is widely acknowledged. A common form of feedback that is used widely in e-learning is the use of model answers. However, model answers are deficient in many respects. In particular, the notion of a "model" answer implies the existence of a single correct answer applicable across multiple…

This article summarizes the findings of the National Research Council (NRC) report "On Evaluating Curricular Effectiveness" and examines the reviews in middle grades mathematics undertaken by the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). The NRC report reviewed and assessed 147 key evaluations of 13 National Science Foundation-supported K-12 mathematics…