For the past 13 years, the Verde Valley Campus of Yavapai College, in Arizona, has used the same system to evaluate part-time faculty in an effort to both maintain quality control and provide feedback to part-time faculty and address their concerns. The system utilizes two instruments to gather evaluative data. The first is used to determine…

The second annual Affiliates' meeting of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching brought together 200 people to examine authentic teaching and assessment practices and policies. Nine presentations from the meeting are compiled in this document, illustrating different approaches to developing alternative assessment…

Three methods of equating performance assessments are compared. Equipercentile equating, item response theory (IRT) partial credit model, and IRT graded response model methods were applied to the same data using an anchor test design. Comparisons are based primarily on the resulting raw score-to-raw score tables and the effects these tables have…

Of all the areas within public elementary and secondary education that are experiencing rapid change, none is experiencing more turmoil than school finance. This publication contains papers commissioned by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to address the twin concerns of what additional school-finance information NCES should…

ISO 9000 is one of a series of international standards providing guidelines and governing quality of products and services. The ISO 9000 certification demonstrates the capability of a supplier to control the processes that determine the acceptability of the product or service being supplied. This paper focuses on the training aspects of ISO 9000…

To gather data on the level of students' reading skills, California's Golden West College conducted two studies. A longitudinal study examined results for the college's reading assessment test from 1991 to 1995, as well as the role that reading skills played in the success of students who took the assessment test and who were subsequently enrolled…

A study examined whether Kentucky primary teachers were adopting the changes in literacy instruction recommended in the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA/1990) which, in part, encouraged the use of whole language and integrated reading/language arts approaches and the teaching of writing as a process. The study employed direct classroom…

The use of videotape technology is an effective pedagogical tool with which to improve the overall performance of students enrolled in sections of basic public speaking. These uses and benefits in the classroom include: (1) practice feedback; (2) identification of style inhibitors; (3) analysis of structural-content issues; (4) suggestions for…

An increasing proportion of the work force is aging at the same time that the workplace is changing in ways that are detrimental to older workers. Attitudes and beliefs about older workers appear to be ambivalent. Studies show that employers and managers stereotype older workers as loyal and possessing good work habits but inflexible and difficult…

A paradigm for the recalibration of teacher-made assessment that assesses and evaluates in one operation is formulated. The effort to make the classroom the primary source of educational research activity is contingent on redefining educational research as empirical and not experimental. This emphasizes that the empirical analysis of instructional…

This report presents findings of an analysis that identified gaps between the Ohio education system and national education goals. Data were collected during 1992 and 1993 by the Ohio Department of Education, which elicited feedback from policymakers at a 1992 seminar, conducted interviews with local teams representing school districts and…

A comprehensive faculty performance appraisal program is necessary for any college to maintain a high standard of excellence, effectiveness, and accountability. Faculty performance should be reviewed using established, fair, and consistent procedures that consider obligations, agreed-upon objectives, and performance standards. The purposes of the…

Offering detailed, culturally diverse examples of practical applications in real classroom settings, this book provides preservice and inservice elementary school teachers with everything needed to set up workshop environments and procedures that develop children's talk, reading, writing skills, and critical thinking. The book features highly…

This publication presents findings of a study that examined high schools with competency-based graduation systems. Data were obtained from interviews with officials at 29 schools in 17 states. Many of the schools were members of the Coalition of Essential Schools. Four schools are described in detail: Central Park East in New York City, New York;…

In 1991 the collaborative efforts of the Council of Chief State School Officers and the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory resulted in the current form of the State Student Assessment Program (SSAP) database. This report marks the third year of that partnership, which builds on earlier data collection efforts to present information…