This study contributes to the development of a positive framework for effective public schools in 2 ways. First, it advances the construct self-regulatory climate as consisting of 3 generative school norms--collective faculty trust in students, collective student trust in teachers, and student-perceived academic emphasis. The authors argue these…

Recent federal investments in early childhood assessment systems are the result of a national need for developmentally appropriate, psychometrically sound instruments to monitor young children and evaluate the effectiveness of their learning programs. In this paper, we examined the association between teachers' perceptions of their students at the…

The authors examined science achievement growth at Grades 3, 5, and 8 and parent school involvement at the same time points using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999. Data were analyzed using cross-classified multilevel latent growth curve modeling with time invariant and varying covariates. School-based…

Closing the achievement gap in public education is a worthy goal that has been included as a top priority in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (2002). This study analyzed the most salient predictors at the student and school levels to identify their long-term impact on mathematics achievement from the elementary grades to high school. The…

The authors investigated the extent to which taking specific types of Advanced Placement (AP) courses and the number of courses taken predicts the likelihood of passing subject benchmarks and earning a score of 19 on the composite score on the ACT test, and examined the role gender plays in the projection. They found evidence that taking an AP…

Middle school mathematics teacher quality is questionable because the number of certified mathematics teachers considered highly qualified is low (Birman et al., 2009). The author examined Grade 8 data from the 2005 National Association of Educational Progress mathematics assessment. The purposes of the study were to (a) determine the impact of…

Forty-eight elementary school teachers were studied to determine the concurrent and predictive validity of the National Teachers Examination (NTE). NTE scores, grade point averages, and American College Test scores were correlated with principal and pupil evaluations of teacher performance. Methodology is discussed. (JL)

A comparison of the difficulty in underlying structure of basal reading texts with the difficulty in surface structure raises questions on the validity of the Fry Readability Formula and other traditional readability formulas. (CJ)

Findings from a 5-year follow-up study of 78 kindergartners suggest that while the Revised Denver Developmental Screening Test (RDDST) accurately predicts academic achievement and standardized test performance, it consistently misclassifies as normal the performance of a significant number of children who require special help in their early…

Results from a study of 61 learning-disabled (LD) elementary students provide evidence that the Handwriting Scale included in the Test of Written Language is a valid measure of LD students' handwriting and that LD students have handwriting difficulties. (IAH)

Preliminary evidence supports the construct validity of two versions of the Simulation of Interactive Decision Making (group tests of interactive teaching competencies that simulate classroom decision making processes more realistically than traditional tests). Evidence of construct validity reflects differences among subjects with various amounts…

While stepwise regression analyses revealed that the demographic variables of sex, school ability, age, and father's occupation increased the power of prediction the LTIT alone was judged to be a valid predictor of academic achievement. (Author)

Evaluation of a model of the dynamics of cumulative achievement, used to develop an instrument for predicting scholastic achievement, suggests that, while the instrumentation needs to be improved, reliability of the model-based approach warrants further work. (MJB)

Teachers estimated students' progress; the result, using EMR students, was no apparent statistical relationship between expectations and academic achievement. (Editor/SP)

The KDP scale was found to be ineffective as a predictor of Ss' contacts with law enforcement agencies but of some use in predicting school social adjustment and reading achievement. (Editor)