The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) is addressing problems of evaluation of family literacy programs through portfolio assessment. Beginning in fall 1991, 15 programs began using portfolios to document parent-child interactions. This guide provides a description of the introduction of portfolio assessment into these programs and…

This two-part document reports the results of a literature review of workplace literacy program evaluation and then details a study of two current workplace literacy programs. The five chapters of the first part summarize findings on what is known about workplace literacy programs, methods for evaluating workplace literacy programs, assessing…

This handbook is intended to help Chapter 1 project staff create a developmentally appropriate early childhood program for preschool and kindergarten through second grade. It is a companion piece to two workshops developed to acquaint early childhood staff with developmentally appropriate practices. An introduction describes the philosophy and…

This paper discusses the development of a Cultural Anxiety Scale (CAS) for Chinese students studying in the United States. One hundred items were developed using the anxiety research literature, a survey of research on stress and anxiety among college students, and Chinese cross-cultural studies. Face, construct, and content validity analysis were…

This practicum was designed to improve screening procedures for identifying students with high potential, to develop and field test screening instruments, and to increase the number of students with high potential from minority populations referred for further testing. Three screening instruments were developed for use in searching for students…

Pennsylvania does not have a legislatively mandated program in place for assessing teacher education programs in institutions of higher education. This study was conducted to examine how Pennsylvania's public and private universities and colleges assess the quality of their teacher education programs. Deans and/or chairs of teacher education…

When evaluation is applied to teacher education programs in higher education, a myriad of issues emerge which make assessment complex and critical, especially during the era of reform. The purpose of this paper is to establish a comprehensive overview of assessment processes and reform efforts in teacher education programs. Organized into five…

Four papers describe a study of the use of holistic writing assessment procedures in a pretest and posttest manner to determine improvement of 10th graders' writing skills. "Problem and Context" (James E. McLean) briefly describes the project and introduces the other three papers. "Holistic Scoring Procedures for Scoring Writing…

A study compared teachers' assessments of students based on alternative evaluation techniques to student assessments based on standardized tests. Teachers in seven kindergarten classrooms evaluated their students (approximately 130 each year) in each of 3 successive years according to how well they had mastered a set of criteria which the teachers…

In spring 1986, Lincoln Land Community College (LLCC) initiated a program to provide part-time, off-campus instructors with the professional support required to improve teaching effectiveness. The plan involved training 14 "master teachers" to function as evaluators of part-time, off-campus instructors. Master teachers have a minimum of 5 years of…

Despite attention to cultural considerations in teacher education, curriculum development, and educational policy making and analysis, evaluation remains the last bastion of ethnocentrism in educational evaluation. Evaluators should accept the challenge of finding new ways to explore educational successes within various cultural contexts. More…

This prospectus for an accounting course is one of a series of business education position papers/curriculum guides developed for high schools in Connecticut to demonstrate that business courses can be used as part of an integrated academic and vocational curriculum. The guide is organized into the following six sections: (1) business department…

The authors describe one high school teacher's attempt to change her mathematics teaching in ways that are consistent with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics'"Standards" documents. One of the coauthors is the teacher who teaches in a professional development school; the other, a researcher, conducted regular observations in…

The lives of people in developing countries need to be compared with and connected to the lives of people in prosperous countries. This is a central issue in what is known in Europe as the North-South problem. This publication argues that it is a problem that deserves a more central place in the political education of young people in Europe. Ideas…

This document describes Italy's systems and procedures for certifying qualifications and skills within the public system of general education and vocational training (VT). Section 1 details the organizational structure, special features, and system of analysis and certification of student skills/qualifications in Italy's system of general…