Describes the Professional Improvement Commitment, a written agreement developed between teacher and evaluator/supervisor at the end of a supervision/evaluation cycle, designed to increase teacher effectiveness. (MM)

A comprehensive three-level program evaluation plan assesses overall impact of early intervention programs through assessment of children's progress toward developmental milestones; quarterly child progress through administration of a program-relevant, criterion-referenced tool; and weekly child progress toward specific instructional objectives by…

This discussion paper stresses the validity and usefulness of a full range of assessment practices as an integral part of the learning and teaching of mathematics. (PK)

Use of outpatient consultation letters in assessing the clinical performance of medical students, interns, and residents in a teaching hospital was examined via analysis of 222 assessments. The method involved a two-stage rating scale based on performance areas of data base, problem formulation, diagnostic tests, management, and overall…

Parents of 31 developmentally delayed children (ages 1-27 months) received training to assess their children's developmental status. No initial differences existed between parent and professional scores in the motor, social, or language domains. Differences in the self-help domain disappeared after 4 months and in the cognitive domain after 12…

Commonly asked questions about methods of faculty evaluation (including student, peer, and self-evaluation) are answered, and guidelines for improving a failing evaluation system are discussed. (MSE)

As part of a larger study, this paper examines the factors that determine promotion decisions at the end of first grade. Determinants of first grade failure are of particular interest because at this stage there are alternatives to failure. (Author/RWB)

A professor of educational psychology describes the goals of research in progress on the personal characteristics of expert teachers, compares classroom management techniques of expert teachers with those of beginning and student teachers, and criticizes existing teacher evaluation systems for their lack of uniform standards and experienced…

Public librarians in Quebec were surveyed to compare their orientation toward a field-specific model of professionalism with their orientation toward a traditional model based on traits derived from other professions. Results indicate that they had a stronger orientation toward the field-specific model to measure the level of professionalism in…

Describes the development and preliminary validation of the Computer Attitudes Scale (CAS), which is designed to provide researchers and educators with a way of assessing some basic student attitudes about computer usage. (MBR)

Evaluation of mastery at the various stages of language acquisition is more appropriately carried out through the use of creative testing on hybrid achievement tests, which retain certain features of achievement tests and incorporate proficiency-based tasks that require authentic communicative language use. (Author/CB)

Describes the collection and analysis of summative data for a slide/tape self-instruction program on an introductory zoology course. Points of concern regarding curricular changes, teaching assistant training, student use, student performance evaluation, development, and revision are discussed from their unique perspectives within the summative…

Identifies situations in which there is disparity between coefficients calculated from aggregate versus individual level data. Determines the magnitudes of these discrepancies, and discusses the implications for test score reporting and policy decisions based in whole or in part on the aggregate level relationships and discrepancies identified.…

An overview is presented of decision-oriented educational research, based on experiences in a large urban school district and on the literature. Alternative definitions of research use and evaluation use are discussed, with particular attention to the dissemination of research outcomes. (GDC)

Argues in defense of Rubin's CCAI, that Powell and Avila's study did not use adequate controls to assess the instrument's reliability. Asserts that their study simply discovered differences in communication competence among ethnic groups. (MS)