Effects of the federal compensatory education policy on the capacity of schools to deliver high-quality services to poor children is examined with a focus on federal assessment of Chapter 1 programs. Alternatives are suggested to improve evaluation usefulness in building organizational capacity by moving beyond a sole focus on student outcomes.…

The articles of this special issue focus on problems and deficiencies in the evaluation of school superintendents. They explore ways to improve superintendent evaluation, drawing on the literature, political realities, educational philosophy, and the theory and practice considered essential for good evaluation. (SLD)

This article considers the models and beliefs of language clinicians, as reflected by their choice of specific assessment instruments or measurement methods. Differences in construct and philosophy are demonstrated in a review of personality and vocational preference inventories and several subtests of sentence production. (DB)

Examined feasibility of using observation, interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, checklists, essay writing, drawing, ranking, activities mapping, and participatory rural appraisal with disadvantaged children. Feedback was provided by children from a capacity-building program on child-centered research, psychologists, and program trainees.…

An alternative high school teacher examined whether her students could be motivated to achieve higher performance levels, testing a theory that performance would improve if students were asked to meet detailed standards rather than be rewarded for class attendance and assignment completion. The experiment had mixed results. (Author/SM)

Describes strategies to help students learn how to evaluate their own work using portfolio assessment, a gradual process that enables students to think reflectively about their work. The paper discusses what is involved in teaching students to understand the terms and participate in the process. (SM)

This article describes a thinking process that can lead to meaningful Individualized Education Family Plan outcome statements for young children with disabilities. It offers questions for families and service providers to use to evaluate the outcome statements they craft together and describes some types of outcomes that do make a difference.…

Explores the information needs, information-seeking behaviors, and work group communication patterns of 27 scientists, engineers, and managers in an industrial R&D (research and development) setting. Highlights include identifying appropriate information resources, including the World Wide Web; performing searches and retrieving relevant…

Explores whether focusing the attention of evaluators on students versus the teacher would affect the assessment of teaching in choral rehearsal situations. Music education majors used 10 categories to rate the teacher or students. Reveals that subjects gave the highest ratings when viewing the teacher and the lowest ratings when viewing students.…

A study of methods used to ensure validity and reliability in classroom assessments surveyed 625 elementary and secondary teachers in Ohio. Results indicate teachers spent little time conducting statistical analyses of their student evaluation data, and many techniques used were poor and inadequate. Additional professional development and improved…

Examines recent implementation of the controversial Massachusetts Educator Certification Tests and the educational, legal, and public policy issues in the implementation of a teacher testing program. The paper focuses on: the contexts for teacher testing; the tests themselves; the quality of the tests; and legal issues in teacher testing and…

Reports on the success of a pilot program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City library in course-integrated information literacy instruction in the field of medieval studies that stresses critical thinking skills to properly evaluate Web sites. Discusses faculty-librarian collaboration and future collaboration possibilities. (Contains 13…

Argues that slide tests effectively evaluate students' understanding of geographic concepts. Discusses the purpose of using slides and outlines procedures for testing. Considers the qualitative results of three formal examinations and areas of visual confusion or misinterpretation; suggests improvements. Examines implications of computers for…

This article describes practices effective in assessing communication and language in persons with autism. It reviews basic principles that govern assessment in the discipline of speech-language pathology, discusses features associated with autism that affect communication and language assessment, and provides strategies to address these features.…

This article summarizes research findings related to the characteristics, identification, and programming for gifted students with learning disabilities. It also presents data from 2 projects that examined the identification and characteristics of this population. Research-generated recommendations are provided and the need for a continuum of…