A new statistical measure termed the Composite Indicator of Changes (CIC) reflects overall changes in average salaries and wages paid by public school systems in much the same way that the Dow-Jones averages reflect price changes in the stock market. The CIC is useful for comparing salary trends among various categories of personnel, among…

Reports on a survey of 232 social science and humanities faculty served by a Canadian university library. Findings confirm that faculty across all disciplines surveyed recognize the importance of bibliographic instruction (BI). Significant differences among departments in the types of BI preferred were revealed. A copy of the survey is appended.…

In 1991, an instructional development needs assessment was conducted of the part-time faculty at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC). A survey instrument, requesting participants to rank-order a variety of skills and competencies were mailed to two groups: part-time faculty who had taught at least one quarter at NMC in the 1989-90 school year; and…

Graphing calculators have been used in the mathematics classroom for speed, to leap hurdles, to make connections among representations, and to permit realism through the use of authentic data. In this study, a graphing calculator tutorial provided on the Casio FX1.0 and FX2.0 PLUS models was found to serve a fifth purpose, improving manipulative…

This paper presents the dual approach to item bias detection employed in the Maryland Functional Testing Program (MFTP). Using instructional objectives mandated by the Maryland State Board of Education, the MFTP develops two levels of the Maryland Functional Reading Test (MFRT) and the Maryland Functional Mathematics Tests (MFMT). These…

The effectiveness of teaching academic courses such as mathematics and science in a foreign language has been investigated by several international studies in the literature. Even though the studies conducted have brought up contradictory results, most of them reveal that learning academic courses through a foreign language medium may pose…

To help classroom teachers in grades K-9 construct mathematics tests, fifteen general objectives, corresponding sub-objectives, sample test items, and answers are presented. In general, sub-objectives are arranged in increasing order of difficulty. The objectives were written to comprehensively cover three categories. The first, graphs, covers the…

This study examined the talk of 20 university level learners of Mandarin as a Second Language in three instructional modes: teacher-led (TL), unstructured group work (UGW), and structured group work using a cooperative learning technique (SGW), in this case, Jigsaw. Statistical analyses showed that more learner talk (in terms of turns and c-units)…

All languages change (Fromkin and Rodman 1993). Language educators must be aware of these changes and help keep their students up to date with them. One area of change in the English language is the controversial shift from gender-exclusive language, such as "Everyone should do his duty" and "Man has done great damage to the…

This study evaluated whether the addition of a writing section to the SAT Reasoning Test™ (referred to as the SAT® in this study) would impact test-taker performance because of fatigue caused by increased test length. The study also investigated test-takers' subjective feelings of fatigue. Ninety-seven test-takers were randomly assigned to three…

Laboratory experiments by Steele and Aronson (1995) found that African-American subjects' performance on difficult verbal items, described as a verbal problem-solving task, was adversely affected when they were asked about their ethnicity just before working on the items. These results were attributed to stereotype threat. Asking about ethnicity…

Describes a study of a large urban public library system that compared levels and sources of stress and job satisfaction between public service and technical service employees. Relationships among work load, job content, and job satisfaction are examined, working relationships among employees are discussed, and the organizational climate is…

In a study investigating the effects of student engagement in inquiry learning through the development of Web sites, nearly every student reported having enjoyed the project, and the majority scored an A or B for their project grade. However, neither enjoyment nor high achievement on this performance task necessarily translated into high scores on…

This study investigated whether students of physiotherapy experienced the concepts "health,""movement,""function," and "interaction" differently during formal education and after some professional experience. Data were gathered by interviewing two groups of physiotherapy students at Linkoping University…

This study conducted a statistical analysis to look at the participation and achievement of Black, Hispanic, and female secondary education students in mathematics, science, and advanced technology programs in schools in Virginia, compared to those of White students and male students. In particular, the study applied descriptive and inferential…