In today's polarizing political climate, there is a need to build citizens' statistical literacy to combat misinformation and support data-based arguments. To that aim, we investigate K-12 standards documents for their alignment with the American Statistical Association's Guidelines for the Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE…

This self-study explores an educational policy-making project initiated, facilitated, and implemented by direct stake-holders through a deliberative, intentional process involving teacher educators, policy-makers, and state regulators. As such, it serves as an example of a high-stakes political change process using principles of deliberative…

This study undertook an investigation of policy and practice related to teacher evaluation and development among Colorado school districts. A conceptual analysis was applied to a sample of teacher evaluation policies and process materials from 30 school districts. The study was based on policy objectives stipulated in state statute and best…

This paper describes a major initiative in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to develop a statewide, standards-based, student report card for reporting the learning progress of individual students at all grade levels (K-12). Led by a team of researchers with expertise in grading and reporting, 36 educators from three diverse school districts created…

This paper presents an overview of the institutional accreditation process, focusing especially on how student assessment fits into accreditation. There are two important reasons for accreditation: first, student financial aid programs at all levels require accreditation; and second, public or private institutional funders require it as a standard…

Findings from a study of Illinois' educational evaluation process, in which external evaluators conduct the evaluation, are presented in this paper. Methodology involved analysis by State Board of Education staff of requests for proposals (RFPs); these were mailed to 121 potential bidders for external evaluation. Bidders included universities,…

Although there is disagreement among educators about performance standards and their relationship to student performance, performance standards are central to the reforms under way in many states and large school districts, including Philadelphia. They are also mentioned explicitly in the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and in the re-authorization…

A new teacher certification law, enacted by the Maine Legislature in 1984, included a chapter which delineated standards and procedures for creating and operating support systems for candidates seeking a higher level certificate, a transitional endorsement, and/or renewal of the master's level certificate. This chapter requires that all teachers…

Local education agency evaluations were systematized to be combined to provide information about the outcomes of occupational programs in the state. This was achieved by developing a manual of evaluation procedures and tools for use by teachers of occupation programs. Pre-test and post-test data from 397 students in 1971 and 287 students in 1972…

The characteristics of a state-mandated principal evaluation system are presented based on a survey of 149 principals and 121 superintendents in North Carolina. The means by which satisfaction with the evaluation process are related to the means for assessing performance, the criteria applied to principals' work, and the type and sources of…

In 1981 the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education established regulations of quality assurance for educational program evaluations conducted in the state through two major areas: the certification of educational program evaluators and the use of the Joint Committee's Standards for Evaluation, Projects and Materials in the…

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE, 2002) requires teacher education units to develop assessment systems and evaluate both the success of candidates and unit operations. Because of a stated, but misguided, fear of statistics, NCATE fails to use accepted terminology to assure the quality of institutional evaluative…

The Mississippi Teacher Assessment Instruments (MTAI) are key elements in a process for both ensuring teacher competency and accrediting teacher education programs. Institutions providing teacher education must pass both a process review and a performance review. To pass the process review, institutions must screen students according to set…

A description of course accreditation in Australian colleges of advanced education considers the development of the present system, procedures followed at state and national levels, strengths and weaknesses of the present system, and possible future directions. A discussion of what accreditation is and what purposes it might achieve and a brief…

This paper reports on (1) the results of a 1984-85 national survey of the status of school administrator preparation, (2) recent literature in the field, and (3) where the field appears to (and should) be going. Participants in the survey included state certification officials, large public school district officials, and directors of doctoral…