A significant movement is underway across the nation to design K-12 assessment systems that better equip stakeholders to provide an equitable and excellent education to each child. While some of these innovations emerged before the pandemic, the massive disruption to instruction fueled a new urgency to rethink the potential of assessments to drive…

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) grants states more authority over their school accountability systems than did No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Hence, states have an opportunity to design improved school rating systems. Three of the most important improvements that states can make are to ensure that their accountability systems: (1)…

Students, teachers, and school leaders are seeking flexibility and supports to enable powerful, personalized learning experiences both inside and outside of the traditional classroom. In personalized learning, instruction is tailored to each student's strengths, needs, and interests--including enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when,…

Despite the American promise of equal educational opportunity for all students, persistent achievement gaps among more and less advantaged groups of students remain, along with the opportunity gaps that create disparate outcomes. However, the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) represents an opportunity for the federal…

"Assessing Student Threats: A Handbook for Implementing the Salem-Keizer System" is a manual for the implementation of a threat assessment system that follows the recommendations of the Safe Schools Initiative and the prescriptive outline provided by the FBI. Written from an educator's perspective with contributing authors from law…

This report compares the assumptions and values embedded in scoring criteria used in five states (Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oregon, and Vermont) for alternate assessments of students with significant cognitive disabilities. The five states use different alternate assessment approaches, including portfolio assessment, performance assessment,…

This book discusses four approaches to incorporating student achievement in teacher evaluation. Seven chapters discuss: (1) "Teacher Evaluation and Student Achievement: An Introduction to the Issues"; (2) "What is the Relationship between Teaching and Learning?" (e.g., whether teachers are responsible for student learning and…

The manual serves as a model for school districts developing procedures for supervising and evaluating their therapy services. The narrative is addressed to therapists rather than supervisors so that school districts can photocopy or adapt sections of the manual and assemble customized manuals for therapists in their programs. The first chapter,…

This paper reports on Oregon's Database Initiative Project (DIP). In response to inconsistent financial reports and a lack of automation, a project team was assembled by Oregon's Department of Education in 1997 with the goal of providing detailed school-level data for the 1997-98 school year in 16 Oregonian school districts. Among the project's…

Student learning must be touchstone by which teachers and teacher educators are gauged. Unfortunately articles in November 1996 "Kappan" on "Quality Teaching for the 21st Century" don't support this statement. In contrast to three national certification initiatives, Oregon's teacher licensure system (Oregon Work Sampling…

These guidelines were developed to update the original Teacher Performance Evaluation Procedures instituted by the Personnel Management Advisory Committe in 1971 and to comply with Oregon law. They are intended to aid local school districts in developing their own staff evaluation procedures and documents. Examples of evaluation forms for…

This publication reviews the state-of-the-art of competency-based education (CBE) and discusses alternative methods for the development of CBE programs in public school systems. It begins with a discussion of the possible influences of various learning theories on the structure and content of competency-based systems. It then focuses in turn on…

"Health Skills for Life" is a comprehensive health education program for kindergarten through high school that teaches health skills essential for developing a healthy life style. State Department of Education procedures used to certify the program in Oregon are described. (PP)

Describes the state networks of education service agencies (ESAs) in Georgia, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin. Compares state ESA accreditation programs with regard to intent, evaluation methods, standards employed, use of performance indicators, and sanctions for poor performance. Contains 12 references. (SV)

When evaluating student performance, teachers often find themselves in a quandary. Teachers must judge, sometimes with firm frankness, while also demonstrating caring. Fortunately, assessment in schools is moving away from judgment to embrace the notion of teachers and students sitting beside one another during the teaching, learning, and…