Interviews with 21 Canadian teachers of grades K-4 indicated that classroom observation was a predominant form of data collection for student assessment. Teachers felt that the purpose of assessment was to help students learn, and that assessment was formative and intimately embedded in teaching and learning. Problems with observation included…

A survey of principals of 45 Catholic and 43 non-Catholic Alberta schools found that most agreed generally about their preferred leadership roles. Some significant differences were found between the groups in actual leadership roles, factors impeding the fulfillment of leadership roles, and coping strategies used. (KS)

This theme issue, a report from the International Academy of Education, suggests ways to come to grips with problems of financing higher education. The crises of rising demand, labor market requirements, efficiency, equity, and diversity are discussed; and suggestions are made for financing expansion of services and student costs. (SLD)

The five chapters and epilogue of this special issue present theoretical and empirical contributions on the relevance of attachment theory to cognitive development and education. A literature review is followed by explorations of attachment theory and emotions, cognitive development, literacy, and the communication effectiveness of the mother.…

Criticizes an article by Messick (1989) that emphasizes consequential validity (the potential and actual social consequences of test score interpretation and use) as a component of construct validity. Shows the profitability of separating the construct-indicator link from the indicator-score link, and the greater importance of the former.…

Reviews research on the development of academic skills in arithmetic and early reading, emphasizing the individual cognitive processes occurring during learning. Offers implications for the development of new methods of assessment that stress processes, rather than just products. Suggests that researchers in cognitive development and assessment…

Describes the nature of processing depth in student learning as a dispositional construct and as a characteristic of task-specific strategies. Reviews efforts to measure processing depth, as shown in student text summaries. Considers several ways in which depth may be measured in educational assessment. (Author/KS)

Illustrates the use of forced classification for assessing student solutions to ill-structured problems. The analysis, applied to discussions by children of a social problem, consists of content categorization; quality ratings within content categories; and categorical discriminant analysis, with student grade and judged quality as discriminating…

Using a computer-based tutorial called STUDY, students navigate through content and apply studying actions such as underlining, taking notes, requesting elaborations, and attempting test items whereas STUDY creates detailed time-stamped records of the learner's interactions in a log file. Log file data are analyzed using a methodology based on the…

Thirty-six test-wise and 41 test-naive high school seniors completed a 14-item test designed to assess their abilities to apply selected test-wiseness principles. Results indicate that, before students can profitably apply test-wise skills, they must first possess knowledge about the content of the stem or options. (Author/KS)

Examined differences in cognitive and metacognitive processes of 40 high- and low-mathematics-ability students in grade 12 as they solved 5 everyday mathematics problems. Competence in problem solving was characterized by a rich knowledge base, metacognitive strategies, and confidence. Boys and girls exhibited different cognitive structures for…

Use of portfolios and performance tasks has exponentially increased as educators seek to be as "fair" as possible, and to link measurement, assessment, and evaluation more closely to cognition, curriculum, and instruction. However, high standards of reliability and validity are equally essential in the use of "authentic" methods and practice. (KS)

Criteria to guide classroom assessment practice are determine the extent to which assessment practices are based on tasks and activities that are representative of instructional intention and translate into specific information collection, interpretation, evaluation, and reporting procedures; address the accuracy of the assessment; and consider…

The Educational Quality Indicators initiative, a 3-year collaboration between Alberta Education and 12 school districts, generated 10 action research projects that developed educational indicator systems with a broad range of student outcomes, methods of data collection and interpretation, and outcomes reporting. Field testing of these systems…

As part of Alberta's provincial initiative, stakeholders (staff, parents, students, and community members) at each school in Grande Prairie School District identified indicators of quality education in the areas of student achievement, school climate, instructional quality, and funding. Results were used to develop an individualized evaluative…