In the year 2003, the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program (BTSA) will become a mandatory credentialing program for California's new teachers. At a local level, the Riverside, Inyo, Mono, San Bernardino Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program (RIMS/BTSA) is one of 147 BTSA programs. Now entering its eighth year, the RIMS/BTSA…

This final report discusses the activities and outcomes of the Center for Policy Research on the Impact of General and Special Education Reform, a federally funded center that investigated and analyzed critical issues in current general and special education policies, their interactions, and their impact on students with disabilities. The center…

This "toolkit" is intended to provide educators, administrators, and family members with an overview of assessment accommodations and modifications for students with disabilities and to be used as a staff development tool. The toolkit is organized into five parts. An introductory section provides an overview of the toolkit. A 15-minute videotape…

The Department of Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation (EDMS) at the University of Maryland is working to develop Master's degree programs that are oriented around developing assessment professionals for work in applied settings. Two fundamentally different sets of experiences are being developed: (1) assessment development, administration, and…

This paper suggests that when engaged in project work, children apply most of the skills identified in the age-appropriate state learning standards. To illustrate how good-quality project work addresses the Illinois state learning standards, this paper describes a project conducted by a second-grade class on their community--Grafton, Illinois. The…

Assessment is more than simply ascribing an 'A' or a 'B' to a particular student achievement. In an era of state-mandated proficiencies and alternative assessment strategies, educators need practical ideas they can use to meaningfully assess their students' learning and their own practice. This issue of "ENC Focus" centers on the topic…

The Victorian school accountability framework is designed specifically for Victorian public schooling in the 1990s. These schools have three chief characteristics: (1) a high level of school autonomy in operational decisions about research allocation, human-resource management, and staff selection; (2) a common framework for curriculum and…

In the 1990s, Hong Kong underwent a great deal of education reforms in response to the public's concern for the quality of education. To keep pace with social and economic developments, education policies have had to be reviewed periodically so that necessary modifications could be made. In 1999, the Education Commission was requested to conduct a…

This publication reports on the status of public education in Alaska and provides policymakers with information for decision making. Under state law, each school district is required to report to its community information about the school district's plans and performance. This publication is a summary of those reports. Data are organized around…

This annual report presents national data on Catholic elementary and secondary schools. Enrollment patterns, regional geographic trends, types and locations of schools, student and staffing demographic characteristics, and student participation in selected education programs are reported. The findings show that Catholic school enrollment has…

This annual report presents national data on Catholic elementary and secondary schools. Enrollment patterns, regional geographic trends, types and locations of schools, student and staffing demographic characteristics, and student participation in selected education programs are analyzed, along with demographic trends in public and private…

This report calls for continual self-evaluation of community colleges to ensure that educational objectives--including knowledge, skills and attitudinal goals--are being met. Faculty and curriculum development must be ongoing, although there is debate over whether it should be proactive or reactive regarding societal changes. Whichever philosophy…

The impact of the new Virginia statewide Standards of Learning (SOL) testing program on classroom instructional and assessment practices was studied through surveys before and after implementation of the testing program. The sample represented responses from 570 secondary school teachers (of mathematics, social studies, English, and science) and…

This book presents 16 papers on assessment in higher education grouped into four sections on: first, systems approaches to assessment; second, the effectiveness of innovative assessment; third, assessing practice; and fourth, autonomous assessment. The included papers are: (1) "Institutional Strategies for Assessment" (Sally Brown); (2)…

This report furnishes examples of assessment and effectiveness activities at Columbia Basin College (Washington). In 1997, the college's Board of Trustees began using the Carver Model of policy governance and created a new college mission statement and related end states, which directly answer the question, "What good will be produced for…