States that French authorities refused to make International Adult Literacy Survey results public, citing methodological flaws, the need for better procedural precautions, and a more adequate notion of literacy. Presents a synthesis of the counter investigations demanded by French authorities that justify their doubts on the IALS definitions and…

Considers the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1997 Arts Report Card. The NAEP assessment provides data on what eighth-graders know and can do in music, visual arts, and theater. Evaluates the assessment, discusses the results, and addresses a call for action. (CMK)

Examines the national educational assessment systems of Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay to explore the role of politics and state-polity relations in shaping the design, implementation, and impact of national assessment systems. Discusses the rapid global diffusion of national assessment systems and the impact of centralized versus decentralized…

This article examines how a state, a district, and a local school in Texas are making steps toward meeting the first recommendation (setting challenging curricular standards) of the 1993 national report "National Excellence: A Case for Developing America's Talent". Specific performance standards for students are listed and standard…

Begins with a look at the year's major education news: implications of the massacre at Columbine High School, major Supreme Court decisions, and pro- and anti-voucher political rhetoric. Following is an analysis of how the nation is doing on the Goals 2000. Other sections take the pulse of public education and analyze the challenges faced by…

This commentary on "Accountability for All Students: Kentucky's Alternate Portfolio Assessment for Students with Moderate and Severe Cognitive Disabilities" (Kleinert and others), discusses the convergence of the inclusion movement and school reform efforts and the ability of the portfolio assessment to facilitate the inclusion of…

This article discusses potential benefits and detriments of high-stakes assessment on students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). It suggests these tests are unlikely to be useful for students with EBD because they differ dramatically from validated assessment procedures for students with disabilities. These students may experience…

This article considers issues in educational reform, particularly accountability-oriented policies, and student motivation. We argue that prominent theories of motivation derived from cognitive traits/states are antithetical to the assumptions underlying conventional assessment formats and accountability-oriented reforms. We advance an alternative…

Since 2000, the only serious attempt to mobilise new resources for education has been the World Bank's co-ordinated "Fast Track Initiative (FTI)." However, the FTI only raises funds for achieving universal completion of primary school and it does not address early childhood education or adult literacy. To date the Global Campaign for Education has…

Few analyses have examined what testing's political status means for how those outside the education establishment view externally mandated tests and what they expect them to accomplish. This article provides such an analysis by first elaborating on the notion that testing and accountability have become political issues. It then describes the…

Information systems can play a vital role in supporting the planning and management of development programs and, as such, they are fundamental to improving people's health, education, training, and enhancing the transparency of decisions and actions taken by public and private agencies in these and other domains. This paper examines how…

We report on a study of what happened when we recycled a conceptual examination question in a first-year university physics course. The question, which was used for three consecutive years, asked about an astronaut's experience of weighing in an orbiting space-craft. The original intention was to use a phenomenographic approach to look for…

The purpose of this article is to develop a framework to understand and assess the quality of learning environments in the workplace. It is argued that indicators used to measure and assess informal learning at work, at both the national and the enterprise level, are underdeveloped. Consequently, current frameworks to measure and benchmark…

Researchers in this study analyze the websites of 30 Washington state school districts to explore differences and similarities between high- and low-performing districts. The study offers evidence about ways educators use accountability data on district websites to communicate with parents, community members, and business representatives about…

This article outlines the experiences of a first-year writing program's adoption of large-scale portfolio assessment as part of its move from student-focused assessment to programmatic assessment. This research is an attempt to provide evidence to support the claims benefits associated with portfolio assessment and to chronicle the changes that…