Assessment and Accountability in Reference Work PDF Download

Author: Susan Griswold Blandy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000755029
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This book, first published in 1992, explores the issue of library assessment methods and the impact of accountability on the delivery of reference services. It is a call for librarians to actively adopt performance measures and learn how to work with the results. It analyses a wealth of assessment methods that librarians can use to collect data and create standards that are valid, practical, and useful in accounting for reference services. Some of the methodologies described include quantitative measures, qualitative measures, patron surveys, questionnaires, interviews, case studies, peer review, unobtrusive testing, and even updating the library's policies and procedures manual as a way to evaluate services. A variety of assessment methods for reference services are applied to all types of libraries. Chapters in Assessment and Accountability in Reference Work describe how a small town library defends the relevancy of its services at a town meeting, how a special library documents the value of its services to cost-conscious management, and how academic libraries can become involved in university- and college-level assessment programs. Librarians seeking to develop their own assessment methods will benefit from practical advice on assessing diversity in the library, and helpful suggestions for improving reference services through training workshops, peer-coaching, and changes in organizational climate.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309057892
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
In the movement toward standards-based education, an important question stands out: How will this reform affect the 10% of school-aged children who have disabilities and thus qualify for special education? In Educating One and All, an expert committee addresses how to reconcile common learning for all students with individualized education for "one"â€"the unique student. The book makes recommendations to states and communities that have adopted standards-based reform and that seek policies and practices to make reform consistent with the requirements of special education. The committee explores the ideas, implementation issues, and legislative initiatives behind the tradition of special education for people with disabilities. It investigates the policy and practice implications of the current reform movement toward high educational standards for all students. Educating One and All examines the curricula and expected outcomes of standards-based education and the educational experience of students with disabilitiesâ€"and identifies points of alignment between the two areas. The volume documents the diverse population of students with disabilities and their school experiences. Because approaches to assessment and accountability are key to standards-based reforms, the committee analyzes how assessment systems currently address students with disabilities, including testing accommodations. The book addresses legal and resource implications, as well as parental participation in children's education.

Author: Robert J. Wright
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1412949173
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 665

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Book Description
Educational Tests and Measurements in the Age of Accountability is a core text for use in a first level graduate course in educational measurement and testing. In addition to covering the topics traditionally found in core textbooks for this course, this text also provides coverage of contemporary topics (including national testing programs, international achievement comparisons, the value added assessment of schools and teachers, and the public policy debate on selective admissions vs. affirmative minority enrollment).

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309172861
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
State education departments and school districts face an important challenge in implementing a new law that requires disadvantaged students to be held to the same standards as other students. The new requirements come from provisions of the 1994 reauthorization of Title I, the largest federal effort in precollegiate education, which provides aid to "level the field" for disadvantaged students. Testing, Teaching, and Learning is written to help states and school districts comply with the new law, offering guidance for designing and implementing assessment and accountability systems. This book examines standards-based education reform and reviews the research on student assessment, focusing on the needs of disadvantaged students covered by Title I. With examples of states and districts that have track records in new systems, the committee develops a practical "decision framework" for education officials. The book explores how best to design assessment and accountability systems that support high levels of student learning and to work toward continuous improvement. Testing, Teaching, and Learning will be an important tool for all involved in educating disadvantaged studentsâ€"state and local administrators and classroom teachers.

Author: David M. Fetterman
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761900252
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
This outstanding group of evaluators from academia, government, nonprofits, and foundations explores empowerment evaluation, a method for using evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self-determination. Empowerment Evaluation begins with an in-depth examination of this type of evaluation as it has been adopted in academic and foundation settings. The book then focuses on the various contexts in which empowerment evaluation is conducted, ranging from resistant environments (in which significant effort is required to move from passive-compliance orientations) to responsive environments (that already have a tradition of self-determination and community organizing). Interesting highlights concerning the role empowerment evaluation has played in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' substance abuse prevention programs are detailed throughout the book. The contributors also provide down-to-earth tools and technical assistance needed to conduct empowerment evaluation. This volume concludes with themes that emerge from the chapters and recommendations concerning next steps. This serves to strengthen the links between empowerment evaluation and community capacity building. empow

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309171326
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Since 1989, with the publication of Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for Mathematics by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, standards have been at the forefront of the education reform movement in the United States. The mathematics standards, which were revised in 2000, have been joined by standards in many subjects, including the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards published in 1996 and the Standards for Technical Literacy issued by the International Technology Education Association in 2000. There is no doubt that standards have begun to influence the education system. The question remains, however, what the nature of that influence is and, most importantly, whether standards truly improve student learning. To answer those questions, one must begin to examine the ways in which components of the system have been influenced by the standards. Investigating the Influence of Standards provides a framework to guide the design, conduct, and interpretation of research regarding the influences of nationally promulgated standards in mathematics, science, and technology education on student learning. Researchers and consumers of research such as teachers, teacher educators, and administrators will find the framework useful as they work toward developing an understanding of the influence of standards.

Author: Laney Sammons
Publisher: Teacher Created Materials
ISBN: 1425816541
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
This must-have resource helps teachers successfully plan, organize, implement, and manage Guided Math Workshop. It provides practical strategies for structure and implementation to allow time for teachers to conduct small-group lessons and math conferences to target student needs. The tested resources and strategies for organization and management help to promote student independence and provide opportunities for ongoing practice of previously mastered concepts and skills. With sample workstations and mathematical tasks and problems for a variety of grade levels, this guide is sure to provide the information that teachers need to minimize preparation time and meet the needs of all students.

Author: Daniel L. Stufflebeam
Publisher: Guilford Publications
ISBN: 1462529232
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
"The book's chapters provide background on how and why the CIPP (Context, Input, Process, Product) Model was developed; a detailed presentation of the model; an explanation of the key role of an evaluation-oriented leader, who can decide what and when to evaluate; detailed presentations on evaluation design, budgeting, and contracting; procedures and tools for collecting, analyzing, and reporting evaluation information; and procedures for conducting standards-based meta-evaluations (evaluations of evaluations). These topics are interspersed with illustrative evaluation cases in such areas as education, housing, and military personnel evaluation"--

Author: Chris W. Gallagher
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
No Child Left Behind and accountability programs generally operate via assessment-driven instruction causing a de-professionalization of teachers and a disengagement of students. Chris Gallagher offers us an alternative: instruction-driven assessment with teachers as the primary assessment instrument. It looks like a way to restore teachers as professionals and to restore students as engaged learners . . . and it looks doable. - Gerald W. Bracey, author of Reading Educational Research: How to Avoid Getting Statistically Snookered This is the most engaging, exciting, and useful book on assessment I have read in a long time. Chris Gallagher draws on the rich experiences of Nebraska educators to show why and how that state's teachers are leading a profoundly important assessment revolution. - Monty Neill, Executive Director, FairTest (National Center for Fair & Open Testing) Reclaiming Assessment details a more humane, more educationally sound way to conduct assessments than what is called for in national and state test-based accountability policies. It examines how Nebraska rejected harmful, high-stakes testing in favor of teacher-designed assessments through a groundbreaking local-control assessment system. Presenting vital conceptual details and practical information for any state, district, or school committed to finding something better for their students than filling ovals, Chris Gallagher focuses in on what makes Nebraska's plan work and how it can transform and has transformed classrooms and policies. In particular he homes in on four key aspects of successful teacher-led assessment: engaging teachers by reinvesting them with classroom- and curricular-level decision-making power engaging students through meaningful classroom assessment engaging colleagues through a new, energizing model of professional development engaging parents and other community members through school-community projects. In each instance, Gallagher combines lessons from Nebraska's school-improvement program with "portraits of practice," vignettes written by Nebraska educators that give a close-up look at how the state's assessment system works, why it works, the settings in which it's making a difference, and the leadership styles that match its goals best. Both a challenge to educators to take back assessment from politicized, top-level bureaucrats and a call to create a new agenda for contemporary education, Reclaiming Assessment is an ideal starting point for your efforts to return to student-centered, not test-centered assessment. Put your trust in educators' abilities to observe and know their students, then read Reclaiming Assessment, adopt an assessment model that's already succeeding in hundreds of schools, and start improving how your students are assessed today.

Author: Laura S. Hamilton
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833033980
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Test-based accountability systems that attach high stakes to standardized test results have raised a number of issues on educational assessment and accountability. Do these high-stakes tests measure student achievement accurately? How can policymakers and educators attach the right consequences to the results of these tests? And what kinds of tradeoffs do these testing policies introduce? This book responds to the growing emphasis on high-stakes testing and offers recommendations for more-effective test-based accountability systems.