Teachers at all levels of education today struggle in their efforts to assign fair, accurate, and meaningful grades to students with disabilities, especially those placed in general education classrooms. Lacking specific policies or recommendations, most teachers apply informal, individual grading adaptations for such students. Although these…

This study explored teachers' views on several decisive issues regarding grading and reporting student learning. Data were gathered through a survey administered to 556 K-12 teachers from a medium-size, Midwest school district with a student population that closely approximates national student demographics. MANOVA analyses revealed few…

Past research on teachers' causal attributions has shown little relation between perceptions of responsibility for positive versus negative student learning outcomes. In this study, Weiner's model for causal attributions was employed to explore these perceived attributional differences. Data were gathered from 184 teachers from two metropolitan…

This study compared different stakeholders' perceptions of the validity of various indicators of student learning used to judge the quality of schools and individual student's academic performance. Data are based on questionnaire responses of 314 educators from school districts in three states that have implemented comprehensive statewide…

The influence of change in teachers' instructional effectiveness upon the relationship between their expectations for students' performance and student achievement outcomes is investigated. Data were gathered from 44 intermediate and high school level teachers who particpated in an inservice training workshop on mastery learning strategies.…

This paper describes a major initiative in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to develop a statewide, standards-based, student report card for reporting the learning progress of individual students at all grade levels (K-12). Led by a team of researchers with expertise in grading and reporting, 36 educators from three diverse school districts created…

Research on the concept of teacher efficacy spans over 20 years, but much remains to be learned. Although precise definitions of the concept have always been problematic, in general, teacher efficacy is defined as teacher's belief or conviction that they can influence how well students learn (T. Guskey and P. Passaro, 1994). Efforts to clarify the…

A study investigated whether teachers who receive training and then implement more effective instructional practices change in the reasons they offer for their effectiveness. Comparisons were made between 46 intermediate and high school teachers in a large urban school system who were trained in and implemented mastery learning techniques, and 50…

This paper presents a model describing three context variables hypothesized to affect measures of teacher efficacy. These variables include the nature of the student performance outcome (positive or negative), the ability of the students involved (high or low), and the scope of influence (single student or group of students). The results from…

The Responsibility for Student Achievement Questionnaire (RSA) was designed to measure elementary or secondary school teachers' beliefs regarding their responsibility for their students' academic successes and failures. The 30 items were constructed in the alternative-weighting format; for each item describing student success or failure, the…

Although much recent attention has focused on gaps in the achievement of different groups of students, the problem has been with us for decades. This paper presents the problem as one of reducing variation in students' achievement, and reviews the work of renowned educator Benjamin Bloom on this problem. Bloom argued that to reduce variation in…

Few educators receive any formal training in assigning marks to students' work or in grading students' performance and achievement. As a result, when required to do so, most simply reflect back on what was done to them and then, based on those experiences, try to develop policies and practices that they believe are fair, equitable, defensible, and…

This study investigated possible differences in the perceptions of three stakeholder groups (teachers, students, and parents) regarding grading and grade reporting. Data were gathered through questionnaires completed by 215 teachers in 2 states, 4,265 elementary school, middle school, and high school students, and 944 parents. Different forms were…

Many contemporary inservice programs set out initially to change teachers' attitudes or gain some sense of commitment from teachers prior to the implementation of a new program. However, some research studies suggest that such efforts, in and of themselves, are unlikely to bring about any real change. Serious commitment is likely to occur only…

This paper describes an exploratory study designed to investigate the relation between selected teacher perceptions past research has shown to be shared by highly effective teachers, and teacher attitudes toward the implementation of new instructional practices. Data were gathered through a questionnaire administered to 120 elementary and…