This study presents preliminary findings from research developing an instructional quality assessment (IQA) toolkit that could be used to monitor the influence of reform initiatives on students' learning environments and to guide professional development efforts within a school or district. This report focuses specifically on the portion of the…

The Educational Testing Service is preparing to introduce a new generation of teacher assessments, the Praxis Series of professional assessments for beginning teachers. Preparatory to test development, a job analysis was conducted to define a knowledge and ability domain important for newly certified Spanish teachers to perform their jobs in a…

This paper presents the results of a study on faculty workload undertaken by the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) as part of its ongoing interest in issues of cost and productivity in higher education. The survey not only included responses from SHEEO members in the 50 states, but also from multi-institutional system governing…

The 35 directing teachers for the teacher training program, fall 1994 session, at the University of North Florida provided feedback on this preservice preparation program through a survey. The teachers completed a four-part questionnaire that required them to evaluate the program, internship procedures and materials, and their supervisory…

Designed for use as a development activity for counselors at Bronx Community College in New York, this program provides discussion materials, questionnaires, and worksheets from the college's Counseling Faculty Development Program. A brief introduction indicates that the program encompasses three components, empowering counselors in the teaching…

Higher education relies on student ratings to evaluate faculty teaching, partly because the alternatives (expert peer appraisals or objective performance criteria) are costly or unavailable. Because student ratings are crucial not only to improving instruction, but also in making or breaking faculty careers, it is important to assure that they…

This paper describes the development and operation of two professional development schools (PDS) by the School of Education at Baylor University. These schools were organized to develop and demonstrate: (1) high quality learning programs for diverse students; (2) practical, thought-provoking preparation for novice teachers; (3) new understandings…

This paper presents an extensive review of the current literature related to the use of performance-based assessment in the preparation of teachers, and includes references to the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Curriculum (INTASC) and the Arkansas standards for licensure of beginning teachers. The paper also describes the use of…

A job analysis was conducted focusing on the knowledge important for beginning Earth and Space Science teachers. The results of the job analysis will be used to define the content domain of the subject assessment in Earth and Space Sciences for the Praxis series of professional assessments for beginning teachers. A domain of 292 knowledge…

A study of preservice student teachers involved 19 undergraduates certified to teach mathematics by the Washburn University (Kansas) teacher preparation program from fall 1984 to fall 1989. The study examined their ability to transmit knowledge of the subject to students through methodologies designed to translate theory into practice. The…

For many preservice teachers, student teaching is the culminating and paramount experience in their preparation to The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to determine the effectiveness of an alternative student teaching supervision model by on-site supervision by the supervising teacher (the university supervisor does not visit the…

This study examined the effects of class size, course level and absenteeism on college student ratings of college faculty teaching performance at a small liberal arts institution, Atlantic Baptist College (New Brunswick, Canada). A rating scale was completed by students in each course offered during the fall semester of the 1993-94 academic year.…

The role of the personnel evaluation process in improving the performance of teachers as classroom communicators is explored by contrasting the personnel evaluation system of Alaska Pacific University (APU) with that of the Anchorage School District (Alaska). While the APU system offers little specification for formative evaluation activities, the…

In January 1986, the faculty and administration at New Mexico State University at Alamogordo (NMSU) decided that the Senior Faculty Advisory Committee would serve as the Branch Promotion and Tenure Committee to advise the administration in the awarding of specific temporary contracts, continuous contracts (tenure), and promotions. The Committee…

Focusing on four methods of teacher evaluation (principal visits, student evaluations, achievement tests, and peer evaluations), attitudes of elementary and secondary school teachers in Florida and Utah were gathered through interviews and questionnaires. Teachers expressed little or no hostility to principal visits, but viewed them as perfunctory…