The completion of the first ten years of this journal is an occasion for review and reflection. The main issues that have been addressed over the ten years are summarized in four main sections: Purposes, International Trends, Quality Concerns and Assessment for Learning. Each of these illustrates the underlying significance of the themes of…

Increasing emphasis on assessment and concern about assessment techniques have stirred interest in alternative assessment forms, for which evidence is needed about consequences, transfer of performance on specific assessment tests, and assessment fairness. Criteria concerning consequences, fairness, transfer-generalizability, cognitive complexity,…

Four evaluation methods for determining educational policy are objectivism; subjectivism; emotive-imperative; and instrumentalism. For the objectivist, the rationale for undertaking an evaluation is based on empirical verification or non-verification of claims of existing policies or activities. Secondly, the objectivist is interested in…

The Judicial Evaluation Method (JEM) is useful for aiding decision-making bodies to formulate policies. Broad public participation in complex issues is provided by JEM. (The conceptualization, policy formulation stages, and participant roles are identified; and the model is applied in two case studies). (MH)

The evaluation design described was used to aid the governing board to reach a policy decision about expanding the California Early Childhood Education program (renamed the School Improvement Program) in the Lafayette School District. Descriptions of procedures, question formats, audiences involved, and results are included. (MH)

Individual standardized test scores in major school subjects can be combined to evaluate school programs and systems. Recently, Sweden experimented with such a practice. Test scores in different subjects (Swedish, English, mathematics) were gathered, units of different size (schools, municipalities, regions) were compared, and inter-school…

This report, which documents compliance of Texas vocational education programs with civil rights legislation in 1992-93, details the activities conducted by the Texas Education Agency to comply with Office of Civil Rights (OCR) guidelines under the Texas Methods of Administration plan. Presented in the first section are the following:…

Using various official sources (such as Ofsted reports), the article explores competing conceptions of the under-achieving school which have been operationalised in recent years. It suggests that there have been multiple, potentially conflicting definitions in policy discourse to which recent innovations have merely added a further layer of…

Discusses Cuba's successes in equalizing education among Black and White, male and female, rural and urban, and young and old Cubans. Discusses the biggest source of potential and actual inequality, the new elite high schools. (CMG)

Presents a fictionalized account illustrating the process by which willful states, misguided experts, cunning marketeers, and overworked teachers and administrators produce textbooks that are ill-written, confusing, misleading, and boring. (BJV)

This report of the Committee on Student Learning to the 73rd Texas Legislature addresses committee structure and membership, the charges to the committee as established in House Bill 2885, and the committee's key actions during its first year. The committee focused on receiving research and discussing issues related to outcomes-driven education,…

Discusses the necessity of using research to evaluate developmental educational programs and policies, using all college-level courses as measures of effectiveness. Provides policy recommendations. (11 citations) (YKH)

All 15 Southern Regional Education Board states have alternative teacher certification programs (many limited to critical needs). The article examines similarities and differences in state policies, who is entering teaching through the programs, how effective the programs are in preparing teachers, and what the program strengths and weaknesses…

A summary of the findings and recommendations of the Swedish Government's Committee on Linguistic Minorities among Children of Preschool Age is provided in this report. The first six chapters supply background material. Chapter 1 describes the target group and its estimated size, and suggests new definitions for use in native language backing…

This paper summarizes and critiques the literature concerning the development and use of time-compressed, intensive course formats in colleges and universities and suggests directions for future inquiry. The paper begins with a discussion of the origins of intensive courses and their development over time. Briefly reviewed are related educational…