No external force or authority can make an organization excellent. Leadership's role is to persuade an organization's members to strive for excellence. This explains the failure of coercive state mandates for teacher evaluation, testing, academic standards, and foreign-language requirements. A new leadership model is desperately needed. (MLH)

Once the prevailing technology standards are established and understood, principals need to observe and evaluate how teachers translate standards into instructional practice. The Engaged Learning Profile Tool helps teachers assess their created learning environment and provides a starting point for technology discussions. Guidelines and indicators…

Leading-edge states, districts, and unions are beginning to implement knowledge- and skills-based pay systems for teachers. PRAXIS and other performance assessment tools are described, along with sample assessment and salary schedule combinations. Effective principal leadership and yearly bonuses between $1,500 and $3,000 ensure sufficient…

Several student and course characteristics were examined in relation to student ratings of instruction. Students at a major Canadian university completed the Universal Student Ratings of Instruction instrument at the end of every course over a three-year period, providing 371,131 student ratings. Analyses of between-group differences indicate that…

Teacher tenure is a hotly contested concept in today's' school reform battles. Many discussions of tenure, however, use the term in incorrect ways that add little to the concepts that should be debated. Historically, tenure represents due process rights teachers acquire after several years of successful service. Other procedures, such as teacher…

A marked difference in the quality of reading lesson plans after early childhood education students were required to use the Unit Builder feature in a web-based productivity tool (TaskStream) prompted the design of a study to measure significant changes. A rubric was created that meshed the qualities of effective teachers of literacy and the…

A conceptual model was developed in an urban undergraduate education institution in the US to assess teaching performance and intellectual development levels of teacher candidates. Danielson's framework of teaching performance and Perry's pattern of intellectual and ethical development were used for developing a conceptual model. A pilot study was…

The most debatable question in higher education today is: Why first "open access" to promote massafication and now "capping" to restrict learner intake? (cf. SA Media Information 2004). Concerning the managing of this difficult and extremely sensitive issue, the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) has come a long…

This article is a summary of our working group's continued discourse from the Conference on English Education (CEE) Summit, where our discussions focused on English teacher candidate competencies, program assessment, the Standards and Guidelines, and National Council of Teachers of English's (NCTE's) roles and responsibilities. For the purpose of…

A summary of a conference session addresses issues involved in determining and evaluating competencies in teachers of visually handicapped children. Four papers are presented on the implications of a project initiated in 1978 at the University of Michigan that established 70 teacher competency statements in 10 goal areas. The first paper,…

Proceedings of a conference on teacher assessment are presented. A speech accompanying presentations of the 1988 Educational Testing Service Award for Distinguished Service to Measurement and a list of winners of that annual award from 1970 to 1988 are included. The nine papers provided include: (1) "Strengthening the Teaching Profession…

A survey and analysis of various fairness issues related to teacher evaluation and the pursuant legal challenges to placement on the Texas Teacher Career Ladder by the use of a statewide teacher appraisal system are presented in this report. Analysis of legal trends in Texas indicates that strict compliance has been required in situations where…

Issues concerning students' evaluation of college faculty are discussed. Several views of this process are presented. Having identified relevant variables or paradigms, possible relationships between the variables can be studied (models and theories). The assumptions underlying these paradigms include the following: that students have a right and…

A study was undertaken to explore cost-effective ways of making career ladder teacher evaluation system decisions based on fewer measures, assessing the relationship of observational variables to other data and final decisions, and comparison of compensatory and conjunctive decision models. Data included multiple scores from eight data sources in…

The development, pilot implementation, and formative evaluation of a teacher evaluation system for schools in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, are described. The system also assessed counselors and media personnel. A committee of 17 teachers and 9 administrative personnel developed the evaluation procedures and instrumentation. A 3-year cycle, which…