During the past decade, New York City undertook a district-wide high school reform that is perhaps unprecedented in its scope, scale, and pace. Between fall 2002 and fall 2008, the school district closed 23 large failing high schools (with graduation rates below 45 percent), opened 216 new small high schools (with different missions, structures,…

The number of schools that have access to computers and the Internet has increased rapidly since the beginning of the 1990s. However, evidence of their effectiveness as pedagogical tools to acquire reading and math skills is still the object of debate. We use repeated cross-section data from Brazil to evaluate the effect of the availability of a…

Limited research exists on effective teaching methods in university physical activity instruction (PAI) program courses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate PAI courses taught utilizing a sport education curriculum and instructional model. The Individual Development and Educational Assessment (IDEA) teaching evaluation was administered to…

The literature on higher education assessment provides a historical context for this study and describes best practices and their challenges. While research studies have examined institutional efforts on a case-by-case basis, little quantitatively empirical research has been conducted concerning the extent to which institutions have built capacity…

The issue of assessment in U.S. education is one that is wrought with conflict because there are many kinds of assessments being used--in various configurations--from district to district and state to state. Contributing writer Susan Reese looks at various assessments, including those being used in career and technical education classrooms, and…

In higher education, assessment of leadership capacities and performance of department chairs and students allows stakeholders to evaluate individuals and programs. To that end, this article describes the Individual Development and Educational Assessment (IDEA) Feedback for Department Chairs system, a psychometrically sound instrument developed…

The value and the pitfalls of project and group work are well recognized. The principles and elements which apply to projects in general, apply to project-based courses. Thoughtful and detailed planning, understanding of the stakeholders and their needs, a good design, appropriate testing, monitoring and quality control and continual management…

This paper explores a number of key issues that have been identified as being important in the identification and evaluation of best practice within the context of e-learning and virtual campuses. The "Promoting Best Practice in Virtual Campuses" (PBP-VC) project is a two year European Commission Education Audiovisual and Culture…

A new professional credential, the Nationally Certified Educational Diagnostician (NCED), was established in 2006 for assessment specialists known as educational diagnosticians. The first cohort of 511 diagnosticians from 11 states received NCED certificates in January 2008. Discussed in this article are several issues of concern related to…

Assessment has long been beset by a dichotomy between what Lynch (2003: 4) termed the positivist and interpretivist orientations. The former views assessment as a technical exercise involving the quantification of learners' knowledge or cognitive abilities; the latter considers assessment as the humanistic endeavor of portraying learners'…

In this paper, the authors introduce the "Targeted Assessment Rubric for Interdisciplinary Writing," an empirically-tested instrument designed to assess interdisciplinary writing at the collegiate level. Interdisciplinary writing presents unique challenges to students, calling upon them to mediate the rhetorical, theoretical, and…

Although interprofessional education (IPE) and continuing interprofessional education (CIPE) are becoming established activities within the education of health professions, assessment of learners continues to be limited. Arguably, this in part is due to a lack of IPE and CIPE within in the clinical workplace. The accountability of…

To make valid decisions about intervention effectiveness in a tiered intervention system, it is essential to formatively assess treatment integrity along with student outcomes. Despite significant advances in technologies for ongoing assessment of student outcomes, research regarding treatment integrity assessment has not shared the same progress…

One of the biggest challenges facing the career and technical education (CTE) community as it works to implement the 2006 Perkins Act is responding to more rigorous requirements for reporting on CTE students' technical skill attainment. The U.S. Department of Education suggested in non-regulatory guidance that states and locals use the number of…

Purpose: The paper seeks to present and assess a conceptual framework and methodology used by schools for engaging with change and determining the scope of change implementation. Design/methodology/approach: The approach employs theories of paradigm change, border pedagogy, and border crossing to frame a school's engagement with the constructs of…