Repeated poor performance by students with special needs on the Indiana Statewide Test of Educational Progress (ISTEP) in an Indiana middle school supported the need for instructional changes. Following the implementation of a full inclusion program, a problem arose in that the program had not been evaluated and effectiveness was in question. This…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the assessment systems of teacher preparation programs have changed since the new NCATE Standards were implemented in 2004, what methods of data collections are being used, and to measure coordinators' perceptions of the assessment systems. An electronic survey was developed by the researcher based…

Inverness Research is an independent national educational research group based in California. Its mission is to help projects assess the quality and efficacy of their efforts, and to help funders better understand the design of their initiatives and the value of their investments. Inverness Research has served by contract with CSTP (Center for…

This report evaluates the construct coverage of the e-rater[R[ scoring engine. The matter of construct coverage depends on whether one defines writing skill, in terms of process or product. Originally, the e-rater engine consisted of a large set of components with a proven ability to predict human holistic scores. By organizing these capabilities…

Under No Child Left Behind, urban school districts have increasingly turned to interim assessments, administered at regular intervals, to help gauge student progress in advance of annual state exams. These assessments have spawned growing debate among educators, assessment experts, and the testing industry: are they worth the significant…

This document contains remarks delivered by the Secretary of Education who spoke at the 2009 Governors Education Symposium. Secretary Duncan spoke about uses of Recovery Act funding to drive reform in four core areas of education: (1) Robust data systems that track student achievement and teacher effectiveness; (2) Teacher and principal quality;…

The initiative called Setting the Direction for Special Education in Alberta was established in the spring of 2008 and is intended to lead the creation of a new paradigm for special education to serve school authorities in their work to support students with special education needs. The primary aids of of this initiative are to develop a special…

The link among the quality of principals, caliber of teaching, and levels of student achievement is a tight one. School leadership is a key factor in the recruitment and retention of quality teachers; teaching quality, in turn, profoundly influences improvements in student learning and achievement. Yet despite their central role in this equation,…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA) requires states to develop high-quality academic assessments aligned with state academic standards. The Department of Education (Education) has provided states with about $400 million for NCLBA assessment implementation every year since 2002. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined: (1)…

From 2002 to 2006 the Australian Government funded the Adult Literacy Research Program (ALRP), which was managed by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). The NCVER commissioned two projects to reflect on the research undertaken through the program. The first, the Adult Literacy Resource, brings together the key messages in…

"I am shortlisting a candidate with GCSE in English and another with Level 2 in Literacy; does it mean they have the same skill at the same level? Also what is Key Skills in Communication? I am confused!" There are many different qualifications available in the lifelong learning sector and it is not always easy to see how they relate to…

Public schools are experiencing a new era of assessment and evaluation with the implementation of state accountability systems and No Child Left Behind. How can Catholic schools respond by recognizing the legitimacy of evaluation and assessment, while also critically examining its appropriateness? To help address this question, this article…

Objective: As part of an effort to improve psychopharmacology training in psychiatric residency programs, a committee of residency training directors and associate directors adapted an introductory schizophrenia presentation from the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology's Model Psychopharmacology Curriculum to develop a multimodal,…

The National Review of School Music Education has systematically documented the variations in quality and accessibility of school music education in Australia. Rural and remote schools were found to be particularly vulnerable to relatively poorer quality and accessibility. These findings were not new; they echoed similar observations made by…

This article discusses how three student populations are faring with graduation rates. These include the following: (1) English language learners (ELLs); (2) students with disabilities; and (3) rural school students. (Contains 1 figure, 2 tables and 31 endnotes.)