To make the education system more open and accountable, Alberta (Canada) designated in 1994 the formation of an MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) implementation team for educational accountability. The MLA team is consulting with Albertans about which results should be included in school reports, which measures should be used to report…

This paper uses a quality-assurance framework to unify the application of school-effectiveness and school-improvement knowledge to a school system. The paper proposes that effective school development is enhanced by the implementation of quality systems that recognize the stages of performance-development cycles. It discusses quality-assurance…

This first evaluation in a Scottish national program of higher education quality assessment reports on evaluation of programs in the fields of economics and electrical and electronic engineering. Section 1 contains background information about legislation establishing the evaluation program, quality assessment and quality audit, the role of the…

In October 1994 the President signed into law H.R. 6, P.L. 103-382, the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA). Impacts of the IASA, which extends and amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and related federal legislation, including the Title I program of aid for the education of disadvantaged children, are explored. More funds will be…

This monograph describes the functions of large-scale educational assessments and examines existing and developing policies as they pertain to transition-age youth with disabilities. It stresses that the level of representation of students with disabilities in such assessments will have impact on their level of representation in national and state…

Unlike traditional postsecondary education, continuing professional education (CPE) does not have a long-established system of legally recognized program providers coupled with a quality control mechanism of institutional and specialized accrediting bodies. Accrediting bodies are just beginning to insist on CPE quality standards comparable to…

This 1995 report presents information on the progress that Tennessee has made toward its 26 educational objectives for preschool through graduate education. It examines the following four areas: (1) the extent of duplication in elementary-secondary and postsecondary education; (2) the extent to which high-school graduation requirements are…

Past research has shown that prior knowledge has a main influence on the learning of students and is a better predictor of study success than other variables in distance education. It has also become clear than the use of assessment techniques as instruments for gathering information on study progress and for directing study guidance should be…

Cooperative assessment was investigated in a classroom setting, examining achievement outcomes as measured by a multiple choice posttest of course content, a posttest of knowledge structure representation, and student perceptions of the cooperative assessment procedure. Eighty-three undergraduate psychology students participated in this…

The articles in this annotated bibliography represent holdings of the Test Center in the area of assessment alternatives in mathematics. Presence on the list does not imply endorsement of the practices by the Test Center; rather, articles are made available to stimulate thinking and provide ideas. Some entries present informal assessments intended…

This reference manual guides users in developing or amending school improvement plans for the 1993-96 Performance-Based Accountability Program (PBAP) of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The PBAP was established with the passage of the state's School Improvement and Accountability Act (1989). In addition to establishing a…

This paper focuses on the development of the school-review process as it has evolved in the New South Wales (NSW), Australia, Department of School Education. The paper describes the background and context of the NSW public school system, which has undergone devolved management structures, rapid societal changes, and professional collaboration. The…

In 1991, the New Jersey Board of Higher Education's College Outcomes Evaluation Program (COEP) was canceled due to lack of state funding. Despite the cancellation, 17 community colleges formed the New Jersey County College Project on General Education to develop goals, objectives, and assessment criteria for general education. The Project grounds…

Considerable evidence suggests that policy-makers, educators, the media, and the public do not understand national and state test results. The problems appear to be two-fold: the scales on which scores are reported seem confusing, and the report forms themselves are often too complex for the intended audiences. This paper addresses two topics. The…

Reform efforts in mathematics aim to increase conceptual understanding, an aim that can be supported through concept maps. This study compared the conceptual knowledge of function held by college students in reform and traditional calculus sections at a large state university. Fourteen students from reform sections and 14 from traditional sections…