Children have a natural inclination to play and imagine themselves as characters. Research has supported theories that connect this pretend play and related theatrical play to the development of children's social and emotional skills, but the author contends we need further, more rigorous research on whether such play directly relates to such…

The Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will establish technical standards and guidelines to ensure that the survey design and implementation processes of PIAAC yield high-quality and internationally comparable data. This document provides a revised version of the technical standards and guidelines originally…

This study elaborates the "what works?" question by exploring the effects of variability in program implementation quality on achievement. Particularly, the effects on achievement of computerized assessment of reading were investigated, analyzing data on 51,000 students in Grades 1-12 who read over 3 million books. When minimum implementation…

A year long study involving 38 students in grades 1 to 6 was conducted to assess the degree of implementation of a frequent, curriculum-based measurement and evaluation system in classrooms in which the teachers had received training in the system, and to examine the effectiveness of the measurement and evaluation system in terms of enhancing the…

Project THISTLE (Thinking Skills in Teaching and Learning) was developed by Montclair State College (New Jersey) faculty in collaboration with the Newark, New Jersey, public schools. The project is designed to improve the basic skills of urban college-bound high school students by working with their teachers in an integrated process of curriculum…

A format is proposed for use in systematic instructional designs where small group activities are planned. The format includes descriptive categories of activity identification; instructional objectives; role, task, and reward structures; evaluation procedures; and support system. Examples are given of how the format can be used. (Author/MBR)

This paper describes and reports results of a program aimed at improving performance of all students, K-12, through a program of sequenced objectives monitored with criterion-referenced tests. Target curriculum areas were mathematics, reading, and language skills. Nationally normed achievement tests were administered in a base year and each year…

This ethnographic study describes the relationships involved in the Partnership for Family Reading, a collaborative project between Montclair State College and a low-income urban school district to promote parent involvement in children's literacy development. Participant observation and other ethnographic research methods were used to produce…

The Penn Manor CRT/Curriculum Articulation Project was designed to study the impact of the implementation of four specific interventions on the achievement of elementary school students in mathematics and language arts. The interventions were as follows: (1) classroom teachers were given individual curriculum skill objectives for their grade…

To gather longitudinal student achievement data from schools utilizing the four-day week, Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) grade equivalent scores were obtained in 1984 from five rural Colorado school districts for four consecutive years--two years prior to and two years following the districts' change to the shortened week. A first analysis…

In 1982, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) proposed to implement a new, complex design for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The major features of this design are described in "A New Design for a New Era" (Messick, Beaton, and Lord, 1983). The purpose of this document is to describe the actual implementation of…

Concerned about the quality of its mathematics and language programs, an elementary school district worked with a college committed to in-school research to create an instructional leadership training program for district principals and teachers. Completing onehalf of its 4-year-project, the Basic Skills Program devoted its first year to writing…

The Summer Training and Education Program (STEP) was developed in 1984 as a strategy for reducing the number of young people who leave school without the skills and motivation necessary for productive employment. The STEP intervention involves collaboration between the public schools and the federal Summer Youth Employment and Training Program…