Argues that the complex nature of music education makes it difficult to assess students' progress based on a single letter grade. Suggests that instead of giving a letter grade, teachers should provide parents with a developmental profile based on the National Standard for Music Education and state or district guidelines. (DSK)

Discusses how public higher education is being brought under intense political pressure to demonstrate that students are proficient in basic skills before matriculating by the end of their first semester. Presents a case study that shows that through persistence and instructional support, students can successfully complete their studies over a…

Asserts that for universities to avoid the growing possibility of lawsuits, tenure evaluation procedures must be clear and fair. Provides suggestions to reduce the likelihood of litigation and to increase the institution's chance of success in a lawsuit. (EV)

Analyzes approximately 4,800 independent evaluations of 796 essays written by 241 students in 13 first-year writing classes at two colleges. Finds very low consistency of holistically scored student performance from essay to essay, suggesting that drawing conclusions from one or even a few writing samples of a particular student is problematic.…

Examines the assumption that the parvocellular system is suppressed by the magnocellular system during saccadic eye movements and that this visual deficit is associated with dyslexia. Evidence from six studies indicates the magnocellular system is suppressed during saccadic eye movements, disproving the magnocellular deficit theory of dyslexia.…

Discusses shortcomings in both cognitive- and competency-based assessment approaches to art learning. Asserts that they fail on a number of fronts to reflect the full extent of art and how it operates. Questions the degree of accuracy that these assessment approaches can achieve when considering art education. (EV)

Reviews evidence regarding the content, standards, and use validity of the International Adult Literacy Survey's performance scales and self-assessment scales. Concludes that there are serious questions about the performance scales and that self-assessment data may help identify adults who believe they have poor literacy skills. Suggests that…

Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, faculty members and student affairs educators often believe that the answers they seek about assessment are secrets kept by an all-knowing, powerful person. If they can just find the Wizard of Assessment and be granted the secret assessment formula, all will be well. The student affairs educators at California…

Purpose--The purpose of this research is to examine participants' response rate on dual style training course evaluation forms. These combine structured and open-ended formats. Pencil and paper forms have a long history of use by trainers in business and commerce and more recently in education. Research methods texts tend to have neglected the…

The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), comprising 34 American Indian tribally controlled colleges and universities, has undertaken a comprehensive effort to develop an "Indigenous Framework for Evaluation" that synthesizes Indigenous ways of knowing and Western evaluation practice. To ground the framework, AIHEC engaged…

Background/Context: Although the importance of facilitating transfer from community colleges to 4-year institutions is almost universally accepted, there is little consensus on how to measure transfer success or evaluate policies aimed at assisting students in making this educational transition. Despite the increasing attention on transfer in…

This paper considers the problem of analysis of correlation coefficients from a multivariate normal population. A unified theorem is derived for the regression model with normally distributed explanatory variables and the general results are employed to provide useful expressions for the distributions of simple, multiple, and partial-multiple…

A comprehensive review of the literature on the evaluation of learning objects revealed a number of problem areas, including emphasizing technology ahead of learning, an absence of reliability and validity estimates, over-reliance on informal descriptive data, a tendency to embrace general impressions of learning objects rather than focusing on…

While the current debate in the evaluation community has concentrated on examining and explicating implications of the choice of methods for evaluating federal programs, the authors of this paper address the challenges faced by the government in the selection of funding mechanisms for supporting program evaluation efforts. The choice of funding…

Promoting ethical practices in assessment is considered to be a very important goal of the organizations involved in assessment. Codes are intended to increase the awareness of ethical practice among their memberships and to promote ethical uses of assessment in various contexts such as teaching, counseling, evaluation, and research. The level of…