Education Commons^™

Testing, Accountability And Accrediation, Sanford D. Snider

MERC Publications

The primary purpose of this case study was to describe the implementation of the Virginia Standards of Learning in seven public school systems in the Richmond, Virginia metropolitan area. Implementation includes the application of the grade level and subject objectives to daily classroom instruction, organization of instruction, and preparation of students for administration of the tests.

The Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) is made up of Virginia Commonwealth University and seven school systems in the vicinity of Richmond. A Policy and Planning Council, which governs the consortium, is made up of the school superintendent, a representative member of each school …

Teachers' Classroom Assessment And Grading Practices: Phase 2, James H. Mcmillan, Daryl Workman

MERC Publications

A significant amount of recent literature has focused on classroom assessment and grading as essential aspects of effective teaching. There is an increased scrutiny of assessment as indicated by the popularity of performance assessment and portfolios, newly established national assessment competencies for teachers (Standards, 1990), and the interplay between learning, motivation, as assessment (Brookhart, 1993, 1994; Tittle, 1994). In Virginia, the Standards of Learning and associated tests highlight the importance of assessment.

Previous research documents that teachers tend to award a "hodgepodge grade of attitude, effort, and achievement" (Brookhart, 1991, p. 36). It is also clear that teachers use a …

Recruiting And Retaining Teachers: A Review Of The Literature, Jill Englebright Fox, Janine Certo

MERC Publications

The National Center for Education Statistics (1998) predicts that by 2008 approximately 2.4 million teachers will be needed in this country, at a rate of over 200,000 per year. Several factors contribute to this prediction. First, due to increased birth rates and immigration (Darling-Hammond, 1999), student enrollment is expected to pass 54 million by that time -- its highest in the history of this country (NCES, 1998). Second, more than 33% of the current teaching force is age 50 or older (Recruiting New Teachers, 1998) and likely to retire within the next decade. Third, recommendations, if not regulations, reducing the …