This contribution documents the author's lived experiences in his fieldwork for his PhD research in the field of English as a second/foreign language in a familiar social setting in Bangladesh. The account suggests that insider researchers can helpfully draw on their tacit knowledge of local social and cultural norms and values to understand their…

The Portland (OR) School District has a long-standing tradition of local achievement test development. Portland prefers to use scores and reporting procedures which capitalize on the advantages of "equal interval" which can be analyzed statistically by all procedures available. Portland testing programs serve a number of purposes: (1)…

This literature review briefly lists the findings of studies on effective schools. The findings are organized under the following categories (which correspond to the Indicator of Quality Schools Assessment instrument categories): curricular congruence, assessment, leadership of the principal, high expectations, school wide norms, school climate,…

Analyzes fertility information for the United States noting characteristics of counties with high and low fertility rates. Compares birth rates for rural and smalltown (nonmetro) women with urban and suburban (metro) women noting that young nonmetro women no longer intend to have families larger than those of metro women. (JHZ)

An estimated 44,340 longer term resident households in rural Kentucky were studied to identify the variables that explained changes in household income status between 1974-79. In a nine-county area of south-central Kentucky, rapid employment growth between 1974 and 1979 created new job opportunities, but employment growth did not benefit all…

Several studies of mathematics education have singled out the early and rigid ability grouping as one of the principal reasons for mathematics underachievement in the United States. Public schools in the United States engage in extensive sorting of students into sharply differentiated curricula by the end of sixth or seventh grade. This study…

A large scale study was undertaken to shed light on the question of school district efficiency, that is, the extent to which school districts are able to increase achievement beyond what would be expected from their families socioeconomic origins. Average scores on state-developed and nationally-standardized tests of third, sixth, and ninth…

To investigate locus of control and its relationships to ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and academic achievement, a large sample of Black, Mexican-American, Native American, and White students in the fourth, fifth, and seventh grades were administered the Academic Achievement Accountability Questionnaire (a locus-of-control questionnaire)…

Rasch methodology facilitates effective achievement comparisons to meet evaluation needs at the district, school, classroom, and individual levels. The five-year District Gains Graph developed by the Portland (Oregon) Public Schools charts fall-to-spring achievement gains in basic skills for Grades 3-8, as measured by the Portland Achievement…

An adaptation of the Hannah-Gardner Test of Verbal and Nonverbal Language Functioning was developed to be used in screening the language skills of 540 low-income Black, English-dominant Hispanic, and Anglo preschool children. The procedures used to calculate local norms and other issues involved in screening minority populations are discussed.…

A study of 149 nonmetropolitan Southern counties used data for 1973 and 1983 to examine the effects of rural industrialization in the region. Variables studied were population size, number of manufacturers, rate of family poverty, and percent of high school graduates. A comparison of white (75% or more whites in the population) and nonwhite (more…

This document provides tables of enrollment and staff data among nonpublic schools in New York. One of the 11 tables compares public with nonpublic school enrollment. Most tables include notes of explanation and of criteria used for categorizing schools. Tables included are the following: (1) Nonpublic School Enrollment by Level and Affiliation,…

Greater knowledge about the practical application of Rasch technology can help in avoiding misapplications and confusions in testing programs. Equal interval curriculum-based scaling makes possible the following improvements in measuring basic skills achievement by enabling testing programs to: (1) individualize the difficulty level of…

Research findings and examples of inschool suspension programs in Oregon are combined in this bulletin. An introduction defines "at-risk" students as those having behavioral or attendance problems. Unlike traditional out-of-school suspension, alternative programs attempt to keep at-risk students at school. Chapter 1 surveys three…

Building on Karabenick's earlier volume on this topic and maintaining its high standards of scholarship and intellectual rigor, this book brings together contemporary work that is theoretically as well as practically important. It highlights current trends in the area and gives expanded attention to applications to teaching and learning. The…