As the commitment to performance assessments as a strategy of reform has increased across the nation, so has the controversy surrounding the purposes, development, implementation, and effects of alternative forms of assessment. One of the first of its kind, this edited volume provides an incisive and comprehensive account of the issues pertaining to performance assessments. The 10 papers comprising the volume were originally written to establish a conceptual framework for a three-year U.S....

This volume explores the recent national trend toward adoption of performance assessments. Embraced at all levels of educational decision-making--state, district, school, and teacher--the shapes these assessments take and the affects they have at the classroom level can differ significantly from one setting to another.Based on case studies of 16 schools, this study describes what performance assessments actually look like--the types of tasks they pose to children, the scoring metho...

Bridge the great divide between distanced administrative duties and daily classroom impact. This book introduces a top-down power mechanism called defined autonomy, a concept that focuses on district-defined, nonnegotiable, common goals and a system of accountability supported by assessment tools. Defined autonomy creates an effective balance of centralized direction and individualized empowerment that allows building-level staff the stylistic freedom to respond quickly and effectively to ...

Setting standards of performance is a ubiquitous task in education licensure, certification, and credentialling. It is found in elementary schooling, the professions, commercial applications, and governmental and private organizations. It is one of the most complex, controversial, and vexing issues facing specialists and policy makers today. This second edition solidifies Setting Performance Standards as the only book providing a comprehensive profile of both the issues and the "h...

Published for the American Educational Research Association by RoutledgeThis landmark volume presents the work of the American Educational Research Association's Panel on Research and Teacher Education. It represents a systematic effort to apply a common set of scholarly lenses to a range of important topics in teacher education.The Panel's charge was twofold:*to create for the larger educational research community a thorough, rigorous, and ...

This book contains a collection of 16 essays covering various topics related to the field of education.

Education has fought long and hard to gain acceptance as a profession and, since professionals by definition use data to shape the decisions they make, education has little choice but to continue moving in this direction. This 3-part handbook represents a major contribution to the literature of education. It is a unique compendium of the most original work currently available on how, when and why evidence should be used to ground practice. It is a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary, researc...

How can educators make sense of the complexities of research?Making Sense of Research brings together the best of two worlds—the "real" world where education is practiced daily and the "ivory tower" world where research is ongoing. The authors have written this book for practitioners at all levels, from teachers making site-specific decisions such as allocating time, to administrators making schoolwide and policy decisions such as reducing class s...

Exploring the unique challenges of vocational education, this book provides simple and straightforward advice on how to teach English Language Learners in today's Career and Technical Education programs. The authors' teaching framework and case studies draw from common settings in which career and technical educators find themselves working with ELLs—in the classroom, in the laboratory or workshop, and in work-based learning settings. By integrating CTE and academic instruction, and embedd...

The American government makes a great case for being interested in education and claims to take great pains to 'leave no child behind.' Current education-system enhancement strategies emphasize testing and accountability and focus on rewarding or penalizing teachers whose students make statistical headway at exam time. But little is offered to teachers in the way of new, better skills to make their teaching more effective.In Behavior Analysis, Education, and Effective Schoo...

Social service agencies are facing the same expectations in quality management and outcomes as private companies, compelling staff members and researchers to provide and interpret valid and useful research to stakeholders at all levels in the field. Child welfare agencies are particularly scrutinized. In this textbook, two highly experienced researchers offer the best techniques for conducting sound research in the field. Covering not only the methodological challenges but also the real-li...

This book presents a new and refreshing look at student assessment from the perspective of leading educational theorists, researchers, and practitioners. The authors call for boundary-breaking assessment that reflects clear understandings of the purposes of assessment, a balance of assessment creativity and realism, the ability to detect solutions for assessment challenges, and the capacity to question and imagine assessment alternatives.The 14 chapters offer school and district ed...