Reviews the components of simulations and games (roles, interactions, rules, goals, outcomes) and the criteria (validity, reliability, utility) by which they can be assessed. Provides a model for including these criteria in the selection/design, use, and assessment of communication simulations and games. (PD)

Private and public secondary schools were studied to compare differences in student results on the American College Test. Students in accredited and nonaccredited schools, and city and county schools were compared. The performance of students in schools that utilize different organizational patterns was assessed. Results are discussed. (DF)

Legislative and innovative milestones in the historical development of pharmaceutical education from the nineteenth century to the present day are discussed by the assistant dean of the College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at the Medical Center. (LBH)

States that most experimental, quantitative, statistical research in education is useless and even misleading or erroneous, because educational quality cannot be measured by quantitative analysis. Author urges educators to refer to literature, philosophy, history, and above all, common sense and experience, to make their own evaluations. (RW)

Discusses the relationship of accountability to educational goals, objectives, assessment and evaluation, teacher evaluation, and state boards and departments. It also discusses models of accountability. (IRT)

Argues that customized criterion-referenced tests produced for use by particular school systems are preferable to "off-the-shelf" criterion-referenced tests or standardized norm-referenced tests, and briefly discusses some of the problems related to developing effective customized criterion-referenced tests. (JG)

Presents some specific questions that educators ought to raise about standardized tests and some alternatives to standardized tests. (Author/IRT)

This report presents the national and state results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessment in mathematics and compares them to results from assessments in 2003 and in the first year data were available, usually 1990. In 2005, nationally representative samples of about 172,000 fourth-grade and 162,000 eighth-grade…

The recent flap over the American Federation of Teachers' (AFT) charter school report is surprising, not because the study used the wrong methods or reached the wrong conclusions, it didn't, but because AFT's conclusions are nothing new. The AFT study "is" the first to use the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) as its…

This report, the fifth annual report on the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP), provides policymakers, educators, parents, and the community with a general accounting and precise overview of the performance of Colorado's third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth grade students relative to the Colorado State Model…

Summarizes findings from the annual survey of Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) graduates regarding their development of the general education skills and affective attributes outlined in the college mission (e.g., interpersonal growth, appreciation for diversity, etc.). The survey includes measures of mission effectiveness based on…

This address, given at the Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology of Ontario (ACAATO) Conference in February 2002, focuses on the identity of the Ontario Community Colleges and if that identity has changed over time. The author concludes that community orientation has never been part of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology…

In the past there were no substantial challenges to the idea that standardized, mass produced assessment would be universally beneficial. Culture was ignored or minimized as a factor in creating testing routines or in interpreting testing and assessment data. In recent years, challenges to this idea have arisen, but the primary pressure for the…

The purpose of this report is to examine aspects of oral reading performance--accuracy, rate, and fluency--that cannot be observed from results of the main NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) reading assessment. The results provided here are intended to inform educators and researchers about these three aspects of fourth-graders'…