This brief policy paper outlines considerations that school district personnel should address in determining the inclusion of students with disabilities in state and district testing and the use of alternate assessment for certain students with disabilities. It notes that the decision to include or exclude a student from state and district testing…

Findings are reported from a 50-state survey of state assessment and accountability systems conducted by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education in 2000. A four-step process was used to collect and verify data for the preparation of state profiles. Nine common layers of accountability have been identified: (1) a statewide system of…

Educational standards and accountability are at the center of an ongoing national debate on school reform that began almost 20 years ago. This debate has raised fundamental questions about school effectiveness and the strategies educators should use to boost student learning. This book provides a closer look at these questions and seeks to answer…

This document is the first in a series of annual, faculty-designed supplements to Nassau Community College's (NCC's) (New York) manual, "Concepts & Procedures for Academic Assessment." The supplements are intended to provide faculty a forum through which they can communicate assessment designs and the impacts of those designs on…

This manual is designed as a technical resource to explain the accountability system used by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to evaluate the performance of public school districts and campuses. The system integrates district accreditation status; campus ratings; district and campus recognition for high performance and performance improvement; and…

This paper reviews evaluations of social programs and major approaches to program evaluation. Its purpose is to examine the roles that philosophy, ideology, key audiences, preferred methods, and typical evaluation questions can play in the practices of contemporary evaluators. The report describes the Learning Connections Projects, a program that…

This report provides a performance and financial evaluation of Wisconsin's charter schools. It examines charter schools that were open during the 1997-98 school year, and it includes their educational programs, administrative policies, and enrollments. The report also details program expenditures, student performance, legal issues, and the effects…

This paper summarizes results of a survey conducted to learn how school districts include students in ungraded or multi-grade classes or programs in state and district large-scale assessments. The survey was responded to by 72 special education directors, assistant superintendents, and supervisors in at least 50 large urban school districts. Major…

This paper discusses different perspectives associated with the use of multiple measures in educational assessment and explores some of the technical considerations for selecting and combining multiple measures. The paper concludes with an example of the use of multiple measures with regard to the recent No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002.…

This paper describes the results of research evaluating the use of mixed-mode surveys in institutional research. Surveys were administered to 1999-2000 graduates at Red River Community College in 2 phases. Phase 1 offered three modes of response: mail, Web-based, and touch-tone data entry (TDE). Phase 2 (administered to non-respondents of Phase 1)…

Charter schools have grown in number over the last decade from a small number in just a few states to over 2,300 schools serving over 575,000 students in 34 states and the District of Columbia. This policy brief reviews research done on charter schools and summarizes key findings. Charter schools tend to be much smaller than district-operated…

This report first presents National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 reading assessment results that are recalculated to include results from special needs students who were tested with accommodations. It also examines the impact on NAEP results of the varying exclusion rates of special needs students by participating states and…

This document presents Alaska State guidelines for including students with disabilities and students who are limited English proficient in statewide assessments. An overview section explains that Alaska has developed a two-tiered Comprehensive System of Student Assessments comprised of regular assessments (criterion referenced tests at grades 3,…

Performance assessments can provide an effective means of measuring abilities that are difficult or impossible to measure with a multiple-choice test, such as ability to communicate, solve problems, and employ critical thinking skills. Performance assessments consist of a task and a set of scoring guidelines, or a rubric. Both performance tasks…

As education policymakers have moved to reform K-12 public education, the roles of test publishers in assessment have expanded. In the last two decades these expanded roles have coincided with the movement of assessment to the center of education reform initiatives. The drive for improvement in public education has made the roles of test…