Issues in the application of a conjunctive/compensatory standard-setting model to a criterion-referenced, classroom-based teacher certification assessment system: A state case study

Wheeling Jesuit College     

Issues and Directions in Technology-Integrated Personnel Assessment and Professional Development

Program design possibilities for educational personnel assessment and professional learning have considerably expanded in recent years as a result of the continued development and refinement of computer, video, and web-based digital technologies. As a result, preK-12 teachers, administrators, and other educators increasingly have access to newer kinds of technology-based professional assessment and career learning tools that enable personnel to approach assessment, evaluation, and professional learning activities in more integrative and effective ways. These technology-based tools engender new sets of issues and raise prospects for new directions and possibilities for personnel assessment and development in the field of education.     

Integrating School Leadership Knowledge and Practice Using Multimedia Technology: Linking National Standards, Assessment, and Professional Development

This article presents an overview perspective on the potential benefits of applying multimedia technology to redesign and invigorate the career-long performance assessment and professional learning of school leaders. Funded design and development efforts of one multimedia project—the Administrator Case Simulation (ACS) Multimedia Library—focusing on the professional assessment and development of school principals involved in collaborative school leadership are highlighted. Project research teams at the ACS Multimedia Lab have focused in the past seven years on using available multimedia technologies to develop school leadership assessment and organizational learning case simulation resources for school principals and other school leaders. This article provides an overview of the multimedia case simulation concept, describes collaborative R&D project efforts involving regional and state school leaders, highlights multimedia case design features, and discusses implications of technology-integrated case designs for informing personnel assessment and evaluation programs and for enhancing the reflective thinking, decision making, and professional learning of school leaders. Finally, recommendations are offered for engaging in further research and development efforts using the integrated systems professional learning approach presented, and for creatively expanding technology-integrated case simulation designs to develop similar professional assessment and learning resources for all school leaders.     

Conceptualizing Organizational Dimensions of Instructional Supervisory Practice: Implications for Professional Learning Environments in Schools

This study explored the organizational nature of the professional learning environments of teachers, administrators, and other peer professionals in schools. A conceptual model of the organizational structure and effects of instructional supervisory practices was developed to guide the empirical investigation. The model is based on an organizational conception of instructional supervision in which the variety of supervisory behaviors, interactions, and decision making engaged in by school personnel contributes to a unique organizational/supervisory (O/S) climate infusing a school's professional learning environment. Six meaningful dimensions of O/S climate were empirically derived. Climate variable linkages to various indices of school effectiveness were posited and explored using quantitative and qualitative methods. The study's qualitative findings revealed additional school-level, organizational context factors which further explicated the O/S climate and professional learning environment constructs and quantitative supervisory climate/effectiveness linkages identified in the study's original conceptual model. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.