A meta-analysis of 50 studies was conducted to investigate whether juvenile delinquents use lower levels of moral judgment than their nondelinquent age-mates and, if so, what factors may influence or moderate the developmental delay. The results show a lower stage of moral judgment for juvenile delinquents (d = 0.76). Effect sizes were large for…

The technology of brief experimental analysis is just beginning to be used for identification of effective treatments for individual students who experience difficulty with oral reading fluency. In this study, the effect of a reading fluency treatment package was examined on easy and hard passages, and generalization was assessed on passages with…

Words Work! is an approach to improving literacy outcomes for children through teacher development and parent engagement. In this article the authors describe the pilot phase of the project. The staff at Words Work! created an assessment system that aligns curriculum with assessment and collection of student data and teacher planning. Teachers use…

Prescriptive writings on performance evaluation have argued that splitting the administrative (summative) and developmental (formative) roles will lead to evaluatees being less defensive and more open to discussing performance problems and taking suggestions, and that without the responsibility for making an administrative evaluation, evaluators…

User-centered design (UCD) is gaining popularity in both the educational and business sectors. This is due to the fact that UCD sheds light on the entire process of analyzing, planning, designing, developing, using, evaluating, and maintaining computer-based learning. "User-Centered Design of Online Learning Communities" explains how…

This action research presents data about an online Master of Arts in Education (MAE) in Learning and Behavior Disorders (LBD), P-12 at Western Kentucky University. During extensive program revisions, the program developed a collaborative assessment model while preparing more than 300 special education personnel for work in rural schools.

With the implementation in 2003 of the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind, students from all cultural and linguistic backgrounds, including English language learners (ELLs), are required to perform well on state assessments. Since the numbers of ELLs in schools are growing and since schools are held accountable for all students'…

PBS TeacherLine, an initiative funded under the U.S. Department of Education's Ready To Teach program, is designed to provide high-quality online professional development for K-12 teachers. Through the first five-year grant cycle, ending in 2005, PBS TeacherLine produced approximately 100 online facilitated courses in reading, mathematics,…

Correlational analysis, classical test theory, confirmatory factor analysis, and multilevel Rasch modeling were used to refine a measure of adolescents' exposure to violence (ETV). Interpersonal violence could be distinguished from other potentially traumatic events; it was also possible to distinguish three routes of exposure (victimization,…

The new "Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools" identifies complex instructional activities and student performance, and requires new assessment methods to reveal that performance. One of the goals of the California Assessment Collaborative (CAC) is to study the effects of local assessment development and implementation…

One of the main obstacles to effective faculty evaluation is the inability to reach consensus on the evaluation's intended purpose. On one hand, faculty evaluation has a formative purpose, supporting faculty development, growth, and self-improvement, while it also has a summative purpose in that it provides data to make personnel decisions on…

One method for assessing teacher performance is the teacher portfolio. This is a collection of work produced by a teacher to highlight and demonstrate his or her knowledge and skills in teaching. A portfolio also provides a means for reflection and an opportunity to critique one's own work and evaluate one's own effectiveness as a teacher. Rather…

This manual was developed as part of the New England Center Pilot Project (NECPP), a 3-year federally funded program focusing on the inclusion of young children with deaf-blindness within regular educational programs in Massachusetts. The NECPP provides consultation during transition to inclusive programs and offers technical assistance, staff…

Validity evidence was determined for an instrument used at a state university to measure student perception of the institutionally stressed importance of various professional traits and his/her performance of these traits. Subjects were 87 preservice teachers at the end of student teaching. Scores from the institutionally stressed importance…

Teachers commonly use only two types of assessment--written examinations that test basic skills and direct observation of student learning. Both assessment procedures have been the subject of intense criticism. This study was conducted to investigate the viability of the portfolio model for authentic assessment of student growth, to analyze…