An ideal companion to "Academic Skills Problems, Third Edition," this user-friendly workbook offers numerous opportunities for practicing and mastering direct assessment and intervention procedures. Practice exercises and forms--some of which are reprinted from the text--are presented in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" format with…

This publication offers teachers and principals a program for customizing schooling to individual students' learning needs and motivating them to take increased responsibility for deciding what and how to learn. It presents a comprehensive framework for introducing self-directed learning (SDL) approaches in the classroom. Nine chapters include:…

Accountability has changed nearly everything in education and has prompted the following questions: What do successful leaders need to know and be able to do? How do we prepare and develop effective school leaders? State legislation has established an urgency for improved student achievement in educational systems where too many students are not…

This book is an effort to examine the theory and practice of educational assessment while taking a step toward the development of a new paradigm. Fundamental changes in the way education is conceptualized must accompany the effort to rethink assessment theory and practice. The following chapters are included: (1) "The Need for a New Science…

This document is an outline of a conference presentation on developing and implementing authentic oral assessment instruments. Among the topics covered are the following: alternative, authentic, direct, descriptive, portfolio, and performance assessments. A detailed comparison and contrasting is undertaken of alternative and performance…

This report describes a plan for using student portfolios as a tool for authentic assessment. The targeted population was classes of 5th, 8th, and 12th graders in 3 urban school settings. The three teachers involved felt that current assessment methods were inadequate for measuring student learning. Analysis of the data showed that current…

Those who are charged with the evaluation of an educational program or school or effects of teaching often must consider how well students do on the variety of standardized tests they take in the course of a school year. This overview describes common types of tests students take in large-scale programs. Criterion-referenced tests are tests that…

This primer provides the basic information that teachers and tutors need to get started on the complex process of reading assessment. Designed for maximum utility in today's standards-driven classroom, the primer presents simple, practical assessment strategies that are based on theory and research. It takes teachers step by step through learning…

This publication outlines prerequisites for success, critical factors in achieving excellence, and strategies for sustaining excellence once high levels of performance have been achieved. It considers how quality and improvement models might be used to support colleges in this work and draws on the work of 10 colleges in the United Kingdom that…

The eighteenth annual National Conference of Black Physics Students (NCBPS) was held February 5-8, 2004 at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The Conference brought together Black students interested in physics to meet and network with Black working physicists, corporate as well as graduate school recruiters, faculty members, administrators,…

This study uses data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) and the Programme for International Assessment (PISA) to measure the difference in reading performance between students in rural and urban schools in each Canadian province and to identify factors that may help to explain rural-urban differences. The study looks at some of the factors…

The future of higher education and its relationship to economic growth were the focus of a one-day conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on November 2, 2005. Cosponsored by the bank, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, and the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, the event brought together over 100 academic, business, and…

This monograph offers a realistic look at current trends in student achievement in science education, the participation of underrepresented populations, and the many factors that serve to sustain them. In addition, it offers new insights and concrete suggestions for change based on the analysis of recent reports and promising field-based studies.…

The Constituency Building Study created a forum for seven grantees and 14 local colleagues to share and reflect on their work. The study proceeded through a series of conversations among the participants and researchers. These conversations explored participants' views of their work; their goals, strategies, and challenges; and their achievements.…

Improving school systems is critical to bridging the achievement gap and achieving federal accountability goals. Research in three urban districts partnered with a university-based intermediary organization sheds light on promising instructional reform strategies and challenges to bringing about systemwide change. Analyses of district efforts to…