Thomas J. Quirk

Review of Studies of the Concurrent and Predictive Validity of the National Teacher Examinations

This review is organized into four main sections. In the first, the background and purposes of the National Teacher Examinations (NTE) and the hazards of combining data on these tests in research studies are discussed briefly. The second section is concerned with articles related to the concurrent validity of the NTE and their relationship to pre-service teacher preparation. The third section has to do with the predictive validity of the NTE with in-service teachers. The last section is a summary of the research findings. The reader who wants more detailed information about any article mentioned in this review is urged to study the more extended discussion of these articles in the annotated bibliography by Quirk, Witten, and Weinberg (1972). The National Teacher Examinations have been in existence for

The Classroom Behavior of Teachers During Compensatory Reading Instruction1

AbstractThis article focuses on the classroom behavior of 135 teachers in compensatory reading programs (grades 2, 4, 6) in twenty-one cities. A special observation instrument was designed to categorize teacher behavior during reading instruction and reliability data are reported for the forty-six observers who were trained to use this instrument. Each class was visited on nine different occasions for 15 minutes of coding during each visit, and data are reported in terms of the average amount of time spent in each mode and content activity across the teachers in these programs.

Teacher Accountability: Negative and Positive.

Misconceptions of what teacher accountability really is are explored here, along with some valid expectations of the concept.

Book Reviews: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Long-Range Policy Planning in Education. Paris, France: Author, 1973. 391 pp.

It is impossible to avoid planning for the future of education because the practices of the present become the tradition and inertia of the future. Even short-range planning in education has long-range implications for future policy, procedures, and content. In addition, educational planning extends to various groups and levels in society—students, teachers, parents, local governments, state (provincial) governments, regional governments, and nations. This book contains the papers and proceedings of a 1969 Paris meeting of national representatives for Educational Planning of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The members of the OECD are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The meeting dealt with the problem of long-term perspective analysis and planning for education. The list of contributors included such people as the Director of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Education, Oslo, Norway; the Director of the Division of Application of Social Sciences, UNESCO, Paris, France; The Director of the Educational Policy Research Center in Syracuse, New York. The book is divided into three sections: Part One deals with examples of long-term policy planning in education from national programs of OECD members; Part Two represents commentaries on national program perspectives; Part Three deals with perspectives and methodology. The quantitative aspects of planning (number of pupils, supply and demand of teachers, demand for educated workers, expenditure on education, number and type of buildings, and the like) are discussed along with the qualitative aspects of planning (curriculum, social problems, pedagogical techniques, and the like). The content of the curriculum and the methods of education are especially important in long-range planning because these aspects can influence public demand for education. Further, local and national government subsidy of education for individuals through loans, scholarships, and fellowships is discussed at several points in the book to illustrate that governmental authorities can help to create a market for education by providing the means