The views of teachers and principals in Massachusetts on early retirement and other issues associated with reduction-in-force policies were sampled and analyzed. Alternatives to layoffs, methods of evaluating teacher performance fairly, and use of seniority as a criterion for retention are discussed. (PP)

Arguments for and against merit pay are weighed, and merit pay's probable effects on teacher morale and motivation are discussed. Different types of programs are reviewed, including: (1) bonuses based on student or teacher performance; (2) individualized productivity plans; (3) differentiated staffing; and (4) the career ladder approach. (PP)

Academic deans from 550 accredited, undergraduate, private liberal arts colleges responded to a questionnaire concerning their faculty evaluation methods. Comparison of this 1978 data to that from a similar 1973 study indicates significant trends toward more structured procedures and increasing use of student, peer, and self-evaluation. (SJL)

The pros and cons of whether physical educators should attempt to evaluate the affective domain of physical education is debated in five articles. Uses and abuses of the affective domain are discussed, and the question of whether affective evaluation is actually possible is debated. (JN)

A description of secondary school teacher education programs precedes a presentation of information gathered from interviews with secondary school teachers. The viewpoints of beginning teachers are contrasted with expectations arising from their preservice teacher education programs. Recommendations are made for cooperative efforts between…

The role of faculty evaluation in the instructional and course improvement phase of faculty development is addressed from the perspectives of both the instructor and the institution. An approach involving multiple sources and methods of collecting evaluation information is presented and the advantages and disadvantages of the different information…

Presented is a brief review of the literature concerned with student evaluation of teaching. The interpretation of the results of these evaluations as well as suggestions for designing a useful instrument are discussed. (CW)

The author posits that testing teacher quality will not improve education unless people realize how current means of teacher testing could eliminate from teacher preparation the utopian elements that foundations courses present through material from authors such as Maxine Greene, Samuel Bowles, and Herbert Gintis. He presents a history of the…

The Educational Testing Service is developing a new generation of teacher assessments--the Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers. The assessment series consists of three components. An academic skills component will assess the candidate's basic academic and enabling skills. Subject assessments will test the candidate's…

The Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE) has been evaluating compensatory education programs in the Austin Independent School District for 10 years. This volume is an attempt to pull together many of those useful, intermittently timely findings into a handy reference volume. The contributions to this volume actually span the 10-year history of…

Using data from previous comprehensive studies of incentive pay plans, this report draws conclusions about assessing and implementing various incentive pay plans. Following a brief history of incentive pay plans from 1908 to 1983, an analysis of accumulated research is provided that shows the reasons why incentive pay plans for teachers have…

This report focuses on current attempts by researchers to examine teacher effectiveness through the "task hypothesis," which asserts that effective teachers accomplish a large and diverse set of tasks--or discrete, goal-oriented units of work--in their classroom. After an introductory critique of past efforts to assess teacher "traits" or…

This paper discusses current and future research on alternative supervisory approaches matched to developmental levels of teachers. The two major questions for research were: (1) Is there an interaction between individual characteristics of teachers and supervisory approach with regard to preference and performance? and (2) Can supervisors acquire…

Determining the characteristics of effective teaching has been a problem for more than 50 years. Studies attempting to rate characteristics or to devise a fair evaluation method abound, but one necessary perspective must not be overlooked: that of the student. An effective teacher transmits knowledge with a blend of intensity and empathy that…

Previous research studies show that interacting elements affecting reported classroom observation of teacher behavior are: (1) teacher characteristics; (2) observer characteristics; (3) influence of status characteristics upon social interaction; (4) effect of sex and topic on judgment of competence; (5) beliefs concerning teaching and teaching…