College faculty are unlike other teachers in that they are not trained to teach and have little supervision. Effectiveness of language instruction is more difficult than most to evaluate. Contemporary models of supervision tend to emphasize training, not evaluation, even for teaching assistants. Some see teaching as an art, not susceptible to…

The purpose of the Public Library Effectiveness Study was to define effectiveness for the public library institution. The research was designed not to measure effectiveness or evaluate particular libraries or groups of libraries, but rather to identify the feature or features of a public library that most directly attest to its effectiveness. The…

A study investigated how a teacher managed her whole-language instructional approach within the constraints of the district skills-based evaluation program. Data gathering and analysis took place over a 5-month period in a first-grade urban midwestern classroom. Data included field notes, interviews, artifacts, and classroom observations. The…

This book describes the Reflective Judgment Model (RJM) and provides a comprehensive review of the research on it and the Reflective Judgment Interview (RJI). Chapter 1 defines reflective judgment as an often neglected aspect of critical thinking. Chapter 2 discusses stage-related assumptions that underlie RJM and relates RJM to current work in…

The 1992-93 school year saw the second statewide implementation of the Vermont portfolio-assessment program, and RAND continued its ongoing evaluation of the program's implementation, effects, and data quality. While the first year's study found evidence of the impact of the assessment program and low reliability of portfolio scoring, this year's…

This newsletter issue focuses on the issue of recommended instructional and curriculum changes that are part of the current reforms in science education. The issue is composed of four articles. The first article, "Science Education: Schools Pushed To Broaden Access, Overhaul Practice," discusses the call for a science curriculum that…

This fact sheet on attention deficit disorders (ADD) provides basic information on: ADD as a neurobiological disability, cause, prevalence and prognosis, identifying criteria, the teacher's challenge, school-based assessment, the two-tiered assessment protocol suggested by the Professional Group on Attention Deficits and Related Disorders,…

This study investigated the procedures used by psychologists in a large midwestern urban area for the initial diagnosis and placement of elementary children with severe emotional disturbance (SED) in educational programs in light of the widespread criticism of the use of projective tests due to the questionable reliability of the tests and…

This study examined 412 college students' essay performance on two prompt types, a traditional prose essay and a type incorporating graphics, modeled on those from English Language Challenge Examination (ELCE) developed for the University of Southern California (USC). The majority of the participants were international students at USC. Each…

Designed to inform administrative and teaching staff at Quebec's colleges of the Commission d'evaluation de l'enseignement collegial's (CEEC's) procedure for evaluating programs of study, this report provides information on the CEEC's approach and the colleges' role, and expands on previous guidelines issued by the CEEC. Following a brief…

The Infant Monitoring Project was initiated in Polk County, Oregon, to address the need for monitoring the development of infants and young children designated as "at risk." The project involved a cooperative effort between the Polk County Health Department and the Teaching Research Division of the Oregon State System of Higher…

In the practicum reported in this document, the self-esteem of low achievers in a high school science class was improved through the use of strategies such as personal self-referent verbal statements (PSRVS), group activities, incentive programs, motivation techniques such as computer assisted instruction (CAI) and parental involvement. A…

The International Personnel Management Association Assessment Council (IPMAAC) is a section of the International Personnel Management Association for individuals engaged in professional level public personnel assessment. Author-generated summaries/outlines of papers presented at the IPMAAC's 1985 conference are provided. Three papers are…

The International Personnel Management Association Assessment Council (IPMAAC) is a section of the International Personnel Management Association dedicated to the improvement of public personnel assessment in such fields as selection and performance evaluation. Before the IPMAAC's fifth annual conference in 1981, four workshops were conducted on…

A research plan for investigating the effects of student portfolios on teaching and learning at three different school sites is described. The plan accommodates two categories of research questions: (1) broad, cross-site questions; and (2) site-specific questions generated by participants at each individual site. Data collection strategies…