Teachers and school leaders frequently make decisions about which strategies will best support students who struggle academically or behaviorally, but evidence-based information about the quality of these strategies is not always available. Resources as the What Works Clearinghouse and the Regional Education Laboratories can help educators…

In 2010, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Education Program has established the Deeper Learning Initiative, which focuses on students' development of deeper learning skills (i.e., the mastery of core academic content, critical-thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and "learn-how-to-learn" skills). Two test…

Six tips for increasing student problem-solving skills are offered in this teacher fact sheet. Puzzles and simulations matched to student mental maturity and general knowledge are recommended as activities for helping students think more flexibly and practice higher order thinking skills. In addition, four suggestions are given for controlling…

Describes the game STRATAGEM and its usage by university students preparing for examinations. The game, which comprises questions coded by topic and level of complexity (recall, application, and inference), is designed to focus student attention on important content, foster accurate assessment of team potential, and encourage risk-taking.…

A new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program, Compliance 2000, assists taxpayers wanting to comply with tax laws but finding it difficult because of legal complexity or administrative burden. Kent State University (Ohio) has used the program to resolve a compliance problem with nonresident alien students and scholars. IRS contact information is…

High school students (N=213) of various ability levels enrolled in first-year algebra classes were presented lessons concerning geometry concepts. The lessons were varied according to the degree of complexity of the examples that were presented. Students then were tested over their understanding of the concepts. The test questions ranged from…

Of the four language skills, reading is probably tested most often, and it may seem to be the easiest to test. However, testing reading proficiency has its difficulties, and the test constructor must be aware of several issues. Reading involves a number of skills, and the number and complexity of these must be recognized. Choosing the text to test…

Describes a study of the mental processes college students use in thinking about speed. Piagetian-type tasks dealing with speed, time, and distance were used in an individual interview format. Males outperformed females on tasks relating to speed, but not on the other tasks. (TW)

The purpose of the study was to determine whether particular aspects of movement control influenced the performance of 2-year-old children on a standard developmental test, and thus influenced assessments of intellectual progress based on that test. Six cerebral-palsied (CP) children were compared with six children not suffering motor system…

Reports on a study designed to assess the kinds of learning opportunities students had as they dealt with science content and the problems teachers faced in managing different kinds of assignments. Management strategies associated with these assignments are described and the effects of these strategies are considered. (Author/TW)

This collection of essays on measurement theory and language testing includes: "Computerized Adaptive Testing: Implications for Language Test Developers" (Peter Tung); "The Promise and Threat of Computerized Adaptive Assessment of Reading Comprehension" (Michael Canale); "Computerized Rasch Analysis of Item Bias in ESL…

The text and accompanying workbook are designed to help second language teachers explore theories of language teaching and learning, deriving a set of hypothesized principles for classroom teaching based on the concept of proficiency and suggesting classroom techniques using them. The first two chapters outline and expand on both theoretical and…