The National Academy of Education (NAEd) undertook this consensus report on the evaluation and improvement of teacher preparation programs (TPPs). Specifically, this consensus report aims to (1) identify and disseminate best practices for evaluating and improving TPPs to promote teacher effectiveness and student achievement; (2) provide…

This White Paper provides a selection of some general principles of assessment or overarching ideas that may guide educators in selecting, developing, and implementing assessments of students' learning at all instructional levels or educational settings in which they are used. These principles represent a framework for understanding the nature of…

In partnership with the Urban League of Greater Miami, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released "Teacher Quality Roadmap: Improving Policies and Practices in Miami," an in-depth study of the work rules Miami-Dade teachers. This look at the state of teacher policies in Miami-Dade County Public Schools explores the…

This report presents the outcomes of the analysis of Grade Level of Achievement (GLA) data at the provincial level to inform the program planning and evaluation needs of Alberta Education as well as school and central office based administrators. GLA data reported to Alberta Education is a teacher's judgment of a student's academic progress. GLA…

Maine is blessed with universities that have records of significant achievement. The seven campuses of the University of Maine System (UMS) together educated over 23,000 students (full-time equivalent) during the past year. But for good reason, in recent years public confidence in higher education throughout the nation has fallen. Half of the…

This Knowledge Brief argues for the value of creating a district accountability system that complements the state?s federally prescribed effort. It also identifies essential decisions that must be made in developing a local system and includes or points to resources that can help inform and guide the process. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires…

The Mississippi Board of Education adopted the School/Community Involvement initiative in 2003 as a part of the Mississippi School Level Accountability Model Evaluation Instruments. This guide provides the components of those standards along with ideas and suggestions to assist parents, community members and school staff with the development or…

This synthesis report provides a historical look back over the past 15 years of alternate assessment, from the early 1990s through the mid 2000s, as reported by state directors of special education on the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) state surveys, and augmented by other research and policy reports published by NCEO and related…

Oregon state standards are presented for the 2004-2005 school year. These include the following:curricular goals; standards; benchmarks; and criteria for levels of initial mastery, advanced mastery, and diploma. This tool is published annually to ensure constituents have access to the most updated information about Oregon's content standards both…

This pamphlet suggests what to evaluate in a school-business partnership, how to evaluate it, and how to determine whether a partnership has made a difference. The section called "Why Evaluate?" lists six questions to which evaluation frequently yields the answers. The next section explains the purpose of four steps in preparing to evaluate…

This guide is intended to assist local providers of Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) youth employment training in responding to new Department of Labor reporting definitions calling for a sufficiently developed youth employment competency system. The first two sections discuss the concept of sufficiently developed systems in generic terms.…

This guide is intended to assist individuals involved in the development, administration, and delivery of volunteer-based community adult literacy programs. Addressed in the individual sections of the guide are the following topics: community (community assessment, learner population, program purposes, public awareness, and partnerships and…

Student assessment, from the classroom to the state and national levels, is changing. The era of norm-referenced, multiple choice, standardized tests may be coming to an end, to be replaced by other forms of assessment, not all equally good. This guide outlines a vision of what assessment in the service of learning can be and provides ideas,…

The increase in large-scale standardized testing in the nation's schools is one major result of demands for accountability. Such testing also impacts many aspects of school and family life and culture. For some, certain unintended impacts may be like side effects of medicines that need to be tolerated; for others they raise larger questions about…

Louisana Educational Assessment Program for the 21st Century (LEAP 21) is an integral part of the Louisiana school and district accountability system passed by the state legislature and signed into law in 1997. The primary purposes of the accountability system are to raise expectations for achievement for all Louisiana public school students and…