Superintendent Evaluation in a Standards-Based Environment: A Status Report from the States*

In the current political climate, in which accountability and standards-based reform represent the educational centerpiece, a renewed interest has emerged in superintendent evaluation as a focal point for school improvement. This paper examines the current state-of-the-art of superintendent evaluation. Findings from the study suggest that despite the recommendations for personnel evaluation standards proposed by The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (1988), 8 of the 50 state AASA/NSBA affiliates do not have requirements or guidelines for the evaluation of the superintendent. Evaluation materials provided by the affiliates in the other 42 states do not meet all of the essential criteria for quality personnel evaluation.     

History and Summary Analyses of Articles Published in the Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education: Documenting the First Twelve Years

The Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education (JPEE) began publication in 1987 with the goal of a journal that focuses on current thought and research in the field of personnel evaluation (Iwanicki, 1987, p. 5). During the first twelve years, forty-eight issues have been published in twelve volumes. This article presents results of analyses of JPEE articles to answer questions on the journal's success in accomplishing its original goals, how it has impacted personnel evaluation practice, and how the focus of the JPEE has evolved through its history. All of the 293 articles that have appeared in the JPEE were coded using a process of qualitative document analysis. Each article was coded according to its contents in each of eight coding groups. The results indicate that the JPEE has published a comprehensive array of evaluation theory and practice, including the results of ninety-four research studies, reports on thirty-five specific programs or projects, twelve special issues on timely topics, and nine book reviews on books about personnel evaluation. Other conclusions note that the JPEE is highly oriented toward teacher evaluation, that it is dominated by United States authors, and that there are whole areas of educational personnel evaluation without substantial research.     

The Case for Expanding Standards for Teacher Evaluation to Include an Instructional Supervision Perspective

Despite the concerns of scholars in the field of instructional supervision, teacher evaluations continue to emphasize bureaucratic accountability and standardization. This article presents an argument for extending the Joint Committee on Standards' Personnel Evaluation Standards to include standards related to the practice of supervision. The proposed standards call for differentiated procedures, collaborative identification of teachers' professional development goals, multiple sources of data, emphasis on formative evaluation processes, consideration of both teachers' personal development goals and school/program improvement goals, and the formalization of formative evaluation processes to achieve clear and shared understanding of their purpose and goals. These standards would align teacher evaluation with aspects of instructional supervision namely,clarification and shared understanding of the process and purpose of evaluations, interpretation of teaching performance in the context of teachers' classrooms and professional values, and deliberation with teachers about how evaluation evidence depicts and informs their work.Patricia Holland is Associate Professor in Educational Leadership and Cultural Studies at the University of Houston. Her research in the areas of instuctional supervision and teachers’ professional development emphasizes the interpretive nature of practice in these areas.     

谈高职院校人事管理机制的创新

高职院校的人事管理改革虽然已经进行多年,但存在诸多困难和问题,应探索和利用新思路进一步深化改革。高职院校要将人事管理工作纳入法治化轨道,实行人事法治化建设;转变原有的"以事为中心"的管理模式为"以人为本"的管理模式;发挥市场机制作用,参与市场竞争的新思路,以促进人事管理改革,提高办学质量和效益。     

基于课程文件的英语教学评价之“教学评价·评价建议”阶段的研究

经济全球化和信息社会化对社会政治、经济、文化等各方面带来了强劲的冲击,也日益向教育领域全面渗透。教育领域进行相应的革新已成为时代发展的迫切需要。在这种大背景下,教育部颁布的《全日制义务教育普通高级中学英语课程标准(实验稿)》和《普通高级中学英语课程标准(实验)》国家都以"评价建议"的形式提出了教学评价的指导性意见,并具有如下特点:注重学生的情感和创新能力的培养;强调教师的诊断反思作用;走向了主体取向和过程取向的评价;在评价的重心上,由重教师教转向重学生学;对考试形式和内容提出新要求,使单一的测试上升为关注学生综合语言能力发展的多元评价系统。     

The Minnesota International Counseling Institute (MICI) 1989—Present: History,Joyful Moments,and Lessons Learned

This article describes the Minnesota International Counseling Institute, a biennial counseling institute created by faculty in the University of Minnesotas Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology Program. One hundred and fifty-two international counseling personnel from 40 countries have participated in the Minnesota International Counseling Institute. After eight Institutes and nearly 20 years, we wish to share our experiences with the international counseling community. The article presents reflection and evaluation by the faculty on our cumulative experiences with the MICI, including history, guiding principles, format, participants, evaluation, successes, lessons learned, and struggles. We hope our experience will be useful to other counseling and human development professionals and adapted by others interested in promoting counseling across cultures.     

基于布鲁姆教育目标分类的高中生物核心素养评价

随着核心素养在学科课程改革中的深入落实,相关评价也应作出改革。与传统的三维目标评价相比,对生物核心素养的评价更为抽象,不易操作和测量。根据布鲁姆的教育目标分类学理论,细化生物学科核心素养中"生命观念""科学思维""科学探究""社会责任"四个要素,可形成更具可行性的评价标准。评价过程中,教师要掌握评价标准的具体要求,凸显生物学科的特色,关注学生价值观的培养。     

Conflicts Between Standards-Based and Postmodernist Evaluations: Toward Rapprochement

Postmodernism is a body of thinking about evaluation that is skeptical of present views, practices, and results of evaluations and their abilities to deliver dependable, useful answers to evaluation questions. This article disagrees with these positions and claims that there exists a substantial foundation from which to continue to professionalize evaluation services and employ them to meet societal needs. Standards-based evaluations, however, must be open to criticism, seek improvements, and be representative of diverse groups concerned with education and evaluation. The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation provides a mechanism for these important functions of standards-based evaluations to be realized. The Joint Committee is a resource for postmodern thinkers to improve present evaluation concepts and practices. There are many commonalties between postmodern and standards-based perspectives including the role of value and bias, social context, political context, mixed methods, and the need for improvement. Standards also have several unique features including the establishment of widely shared principles, the development of professionalism, and the ability to reach closure and make decisions. Given these differences, ten questions are responded to from a standards-based perspective keyed to the concerns of postmodernists.     

英汉法律翻译基本原则探析

自从加入WTO以来,我国对外经济交流不断增加,致使涉外贸易和交往中对法律翻译的需求也日益增加。作为一种独特的社会语言变体,法律语言与日常用语和文学用语区别较大。其内涵和特点对法律翻译有各种要求。法律翻译需要严谨、精准,避免产生歧义和纠纷;用语需要规范、庄重,不得随意改动词语;表达需要简明扼要,意义清晰,便于理解。以上即法律翻译精准性、规范性、简明性的基本原则。     

本科教学水平评估下我国政府与高校法律关系的厘定

政府与高校法律关系的定位是本科教学水平评估中的根本性问题。政府与高校在评估中处于什么地位、应扮演什么角色、承载哪些责任等一系列的问题都可归结为两者的法律关系定位。而从我国本科教学水平评估的实践看,政府与高校的法律关系出现了偏差和错位:主要表现在评估主体和责任主体的错位,因此,当务之急是必须进一步理顺政府与高校在评估中的法律关系,积极转变评估的模式,变政府主导型为社会主导型,实现政府与高校法律关系的归位。     

Evaluating educational support personnel: A conceptual and legal framework

Summary The evaluation of professional educational support personnel has not received the same attention nor generated the same efforts as the evaluation of classroom teachers. There is not yet a system for professional support personnel comparable to effective teaching behaviors, an omission that unsettles both specialized support staff and the generalist supervisors responsible for evaluating them.What we have presented here is a comprehensive approach applicable to professional support personnel. It begins with identifying district (student and community) needs, describing job responsibilities based on the goals of programs (clarified through the needs assessment), identifying staff behaviors as indicators of job performance, setting standards by which to measure staff performance, documenting the job performance, and using sound evaluation practices that incorporate all the necessary due process requirements for fairness. By involving the professional support personnel in each of these steps, evaluators will maximize the potential for growth as well as protect themselves and the evaluatees throughout the evaluation process.     

物理学本科应用性人才培养目标与规格

高等学校的根本任务是培养人才,人才培养必须适应经济社会发展需求。21世纪已经进入知识经济时代和信息社会,我国经济发生了重大变革,全面推进社会主义现代化建设和小康社会建设对人才需求发生了变化,高等教育大众化的实现对人才培养的要求也发生了变化。21世纪高等学校人才培养目标与规格必须进行调整。本文以物理学本科专业为例,阐述了教学型本科院校应用性人才的培养目标与规格。     

高职院校人事档案资料的收集管理

高职院校人事档案工作存在收集困难、认识观念模糊、档案材料失真等问题。做好人事档案收集工作,应从规范收集制度、拓宽收集渠道、建立干部人事档案信息网络化管理系统等方面着手。     

Assessment of Teacher Reactions to a Standards-Based Teacher Evaluation System: A Pilot Study*

This article reports on teachers' reactions to a pilot implementation of a new standards-based teacher evaluation system in a medium-sized Midwestern school district. The system, based on the Framework for Teaching (Danielson, 1996), was intended to serve as the foundation for a new knowledge and skill pay plan for teachers. Teacher reactions were measured using both interview and survey methods. Teachers' overall favorableness toward the system, as measured by the survey, was correlated with acceptance of the teaching standards, perception of the evaluation process as fair and the evaluator as capable and objective, and perception that the evaluation system had a positive impact on their teaching. In interviews, teachers perceived both positive and negative aspects of the system, and for many these more or less balanced each other. While most teachers accepted the evaluation standards and the need for an evaluation system, many also perceived that the system added too much to teachers' workloads and did not provide enough feedback. Based on these results several changes were made in the evaluation system prior to full implementation. The results are discussed with reference to previous research and the Personnel Evaluation Standards.     

Class size and college students' evaluations of teachers and courses: A closer look

A systematic analysis of extant studies reveals, on average, a very weak inverse association between the size of class enrollment in a college course and students' overall evaluation of the course and its teacher, as well as between class size and evaluations of specific instructional dimensions pertaining to the instructor's skill in presenting material and communicating information. Larger inverse associations are typically found between class size and evaluations of specific instructional dimensions pertaining to the instructor's interactions and interrelationships with students. This pattern of findings is consistent with the accumulating evidence that the instructional dimensions of the first set have greater importance for students in forming their global opinions of teachers and courses than do those of the second set. The further finding in some studies of a negative curvilinear (roughly U-shaped) relationship between class size and evaluations is noted and discussed. Implications for the validity of teacher evaluations are considered and the related question of whether class size biases these evaluations is explored.     

Legal Issues Relating to Higher Education Personnel Handbooks

Courts have frequently interpreted a universitys personnel handbook as a contract that can be violated if the university fails to abide by its terms. Such lawsuits may occur when a university threatens to take adverse action against an employee and often arise in three kinds of circumstances—when situations develop that are not addressed in the handbook, when the university fails to follow handbook procedures for handling a particular personnel matter, or when written expectations for employees are poorly drafted or are subject to differing interpretations. When drafting or reviewing a personnel handbook, university administrators should makes sure the handbook conforms to legal and constitutional requirements. In addition, the handbook should make clear what parts—if any—constitute a contract between the university and the employee and the means whereby the handbook can be amended. In addition, university officials should make sure that the university does not engage in practices that are at variance with the handbook language.     

浅析地方高校人事制度改革所面临的问题

高校人事管理在高校发展中占有重要地位。针对地方高校自身特点,以人事管理制度改革为契机,树立一种为地方经济、社会发展服务的具有地方特色的"双师型"师资队伍的人事管理理念,深刻认识高校教育管理队伍整体素质创新提高的重要性,为进一步完善激励机制在分配方式的应用奠定了基础。     

Validity on Trial: Psychometric and Legal Conceptualizations of Validity

The psychometric literature is replete with comprehensive discussions of test validity, test validation, and the characteristics of quality assessment programs. The most authoritative source for guidance regarding sound test development and evaluation practices is the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. However, the Standards are not legally binding. In this article, we review the way in which validity is conceptualized in the Standards and compare this conceptualization with validity evidence presented in specific court cases involving legal challenges to tests. Our review indicates that, in general, there is strong congruence between the Standards and how validity is viewed in the courts, and that testing agencies that conform to these guidelines are likely to withstand legal scrutiny. However, the courts have taken a more practical, less theoretical view on validity and tend to emphasize evidence based on test content and testing consequences.