Discusses the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards system of National Board Certification and the effect of the performance-based assessment on teaching and education. The article offers a rationale for National Board Certification, describes three general components (standards, assessment, and professional development), and examines…

Discusses Howard Gardner's views regarding students' academic abilities. Describes the use of primary sources in history instruction. Includes a guide for analyzing primary sources for each level from kindergarten through eighth grade. (CFR)

Asks whether teachers understand why students participate in music education and activities. Discusses three types of motivation: (1) incentive motivation; (2) fear motivation; and (3) intrinsic, or growth motivation. Presents three charts listing criteria for student competency in wind instruments. (CFR)

The old era of educational assessment and reasons for its demise are described. The new era will be different and will present four challenges to the assessment community: (1) new assessment targets; (2) technical challenges of alternative assessments; (3) demystifying assessment and evaluation; and (4) reexamining assessment priorities. (SLD)

Using portfolios in assessing literacy is explored, considering student portfolios and the teacher's class portfolio. Portfolio assessment is a valuable complement to externally mandated tests, but technical issues must be addressed if the portfolio movement is to survive. Portfolios must be linked to the broader task of instructional improvement.…

Guidelines for developing performance assessments in science education allied with current research and reform are presented. The guidelines are applied to 3 hands-on science investigations performed by over 300 fifth and sixth graders and scored by science educators. Although difficult to develop, such assessments can be scored reliably. (SLD)

Provides a conceptual framework for a professional support personnel (e.g., counselors, deans, librarians) performance evaluation system. Outlines steps in evaluating support personnel (identifying system needs, relating program expectations to job responsibilities, selecting performance indicators, setting job performance standards, documenting…

Increasing emphasis on assessment and concern about assessment techniques have stirred interest in alternative assessment forms, for which evidence is needed about consequences, transfer of performance on specific assessment tests, and assessment fairness. Criteria concerning consequences, fairness, transfer-generalizability, cognitive complexity,…

Prescribes the use and grading of student-created assessment portfolios for a large-enrollment, introductory-level environmental science course. Grading involves a modified holistic-scoring technique that evaluates student-provided evidence of academic achievement from extended, authentic tasks. Portfolio use emphasizes the integration of facts…

Describes a qualitative action research study that investigated the effectiveness of an assignment for tenth graders that required primary research methods and an essay. Topics include authentic research; constructivist theory of learning; performance-based assessment; student journals; peer editing; teacher-librarian collaboration; and student…

In December 2001, as part of a Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology grant, the St. Mary's College writing center dedicated space, software, and trained personnel to assist students and teachers in the writing and development of electronic portfolios. They created a unified space for faculty and student development across disciplines.…

This article describes a collaborative university-school district project for improving teaching and learning by using state-of-the-art educational technologies. The work resulted in the simultaneous improvement of P-12 education and teacher education. The article illustrates some of the important outcomes of a project known as Technology 2000, a…

To respond to an increasingly diverse student population, educators need to evaluate how well teacher education programs prepare graduates in culturally responsive teaching (CRT). In this study, we used a performance-based assessment to determine whether (a) different levels of preservice preparation in CRT and (b) preparation in special versus…

Even the best teacher education programs are notoriously short and barely adequate for preparing students to teach in today's schools. At the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) several projects have been undertaken in the use of sources in history classrooms (see Ruth Sandwell's article in this…

A range of factors has impinged on the provision of teacher education programs in the last decade. Largely emanating from governmental demands for increased accountability, these have included the setting of standards for student achievement, proof of program impact, and state and national testing. These legislative reforms and school district…