This report reviews the program evaluation approaches used at three member colleges of the National Postsecondary Alliance (NPA), a consortium of postsecondary schools intent on achieving excellence in occupational education. The first paper, "Introduction" by Luene Corwin, discusses the goals and major activities of the NPA. The second…

In the spring of 1985, the Oregon Department of Education conducted an assessment of eighth graders' skills in writing, reading, and mathematics. The state reading test consisted of two parts: the first designed to measure students' inferential and evaluative reading comprehension and selected study skills, the second designed to measure students'…

Seeking to describe the current conditions of U.S. arts education, this document contains information collected and compiled from state education agencies. In 1984, the National Executive Board of Music Educators National Conference (MENC) adopted three goals which stated that by 1990: (1) every student in grades K-12 would have access to music…

This report describes and interprets findings from the 1981-82 national mathematics assessment, the third such assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The results show a leveling off of the performance of American 17-year-olds, who had shown a decline between 1978 and 1982; 9-year-olds' performance has changed…

The findings in evaluation and testing activities of the Austin Independent School District (AISD) during the 1981-82 school year are summarized. The first section, "1982 at a Glance," discusses the evaluation findings as a whole. Final reports and abstracts of related reports on achievement test results are presented for the district…

Descriptions and the summary results of each evaluation instrument used in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District (AISD) for evaluation and testing in the 1981-82 school year are provided. The instruments considered include the Scholastic Aptitude Test, American College Test, Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, Sequential Tests of…

Summary reports and student performance results from the Texas statewide assessment of minimum basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics are presented. The Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS) was developed in 1979 to provide support for educationally disadvantaged children. Criterion-referenced tests are administered to students in…

Data from 10,000 17-year-old respondents to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1975-76 Special Mathematics Probe (Basic Mathematics Assessment) were analyzed. The primary purpose was to identify respondents' background characteristics associated with basic mathematics achievement. The achievement items and 241 background…

Major local-, state-, and university-designed programs with the objective of fostering instructional effectiveness at the elementary school level are described in this paper. Instructional effectiveness is defined as a prerequisite to academic achievement in that it occurs when all students obtain at least minimum academic mastery as measured by…

Since the independence era of the 1960's, development of education in Africa has gone from euphoria to crisis and then to reform. The questioning of schooling that took place in Togo resulted in an educational reform and drastic changes in schools. Ten years later, it was deemed necessary to assess the effectiveness of the new system by looking…

In this report, test results on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Tests (GCRT) are presented for first-, fourth-, and eighth-grade Atlanta pupils. A brief report of results on the Georgia Basic Skill Tests (GBST) for tenth graders is also included. Specifically, the GCRT is designed to assess students' performance on reading (including concepts in…

With increasing attention being given to the importance of microcomputers in the schools, there is concern about how new teachers can best be prepared to use the new technology effectively. This paper presents a perspective on teacher training based on three categories in which computers may be used in the classroom: to provide unique learning…

This bulletin contains assessments of visits by three comparative monitoring groups to European experiments in adult education, including programs in Portugal and Italy; Sweden, Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany and France; and Turkey and Norway. The bulletin also examines a parallel program involving the co-production of multimedia…

The West Virginia Board of Education and state superintendent of schools directed the preparation of this document as the result of a court opinion (Pauley v Bailey) holding that the system of financing West Virginia public schools was unconstitutional, and requiring the development of a master plan for a thorough and efficient system of…

The social Studies Assessment Program was a province-wide assessment of Social Studies concepts, skills, and attitudes in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 in Manitoba (Canada) carried out during April, 1984. Designed to provide a profile of student performance on program objectives, the test was administered to a representative sample of students at each…