A consensus has emerged in recent years that the fragmented systems serving children and families need to be restructured and integrated in ways that make them accessible, family-focused, and able to accommodate cultural differences. Collaborative partnerships involving schools, families, and other community stakeholders are learning that they are…

This document, fourth in a series, describes trends in statewide assessment programs. It is based on surveys conducted in the past for the Association of State Assessment Programs. States were asked to describe the assessment programs they operated during the 1995-96 school year. Part One of the survey asks each state to describe its existing…

The fifth edition of the "Annual Survey of State Student Assessment Programs," tabulates extensive and detailed information about each state's assessment programs based on surveys conducted in the past for the Association of State Assessment Programs. The entire survey is presented. Part One asks each state to describe its existing…

This book is a guide to understanding and implementing portfolio assessment in schools and contains checklists, forms, sample letters, rubrics, and inventories. The chapters are: (1) "Defining a Portfolio"; (2) "Evolving Nature of Portfolios"; (3) "Getting Started"; (4) "Clarifying the Role of Self-Assessment"; (5) "Choosing from Multiple Sources…

A discussion of in-depth interviewing as a method for research on language teaching and learning situates the technique within the continuum of research methodology and differentiates it from quantitative research methods. The strengths and weaknesses of in-depth interviewing are examined, methods of sampling are discussed, and advice on the…

This report addresses issues concerned with reporting educational results for students with disabilities, identifies principles to guide reporting practices, and offers recommendations. The report notes that there are many purposes for reporting and that reporting information on students with disabilities is important because it ensures that they…

As part of a larger study to provide "indicators" of high school educational performance, this report presents data on remedial services provided to 15,042 college freshmen (1996-97) in Oklahoma public colleges by Oklahoma high school for the graduating class of 1995-96. The study used a student-cohort flow system to track student data…

This guide discusses evaluation as an element of good literacy education and discusses the development of an evaluation plan for learner-centered adult literacy programs. The provision of good literacy practice is the goal of everyone involved in learner-centered, community-based adult literacy programs. Since the philosophy of learner-centered,…

Current evidence suggests emerging shortages of nurses available or willing to fill some vacant positions in hospitals, nursing homes, and home care. The nationwide unemployment rate for registered nurses (RNs), which has been low for many years, has declined to 1.0 percent, the lowest level in more than a decade. Nurses report job dissatisfaction…

This CD-ROM contains data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study Second Follow-up Study (B&B:93/97) in the form of a data analysis system that includes most of the variables of interest to analysts. The B&B:93/97 study tracks the experiences of a cohort of recent college graduates, those who received a baccalaureate degree…

This paper discusses how educators can apply positive behavioral support (PBS) to students with and without disabilities and conduct functional behavioral assessments (FBAs). It begins by describing the challenges that educators face in educating an increasingly heterogeneous population of students, including students with external and internal…

In an effort to discover how Maine schools are operating their Reading Recovery (RR) programs, Maine Reading Recovery teachers provided information related to school-level implementation. Although completion of the Maine data forms was optional, three-fourths of the 346 Maine RR teachers completed the forms. Two types of implementation data were…

This guide contains the recently revised 1998 Texas procedures concerning dyslexia and related disorders and provides school districts and parents with additional information on the state's dyslexia law and its relationship to the federal laws, Section 540 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The…

At the meeting of the North Central Association held in 1913 a list of colleges and universities prepared in the basis of standards previously adopted by the association was approved and ordered to be published. Furthermore, the officers of the commission were directed to prepare and publish a summary of all the returns made by colleges and…

The organization and operations of an evaluation unit in a local governmental agency are presented. How local evaluation units manage (1) external relations (to obtain funding, to gain access to data sources, and encourage evaluation use) and (2) internal operations (including staffing, communication, data collection, and analysis) are described.…