The effects of a mathematics lesson's complexity were studied, using 128 female and 122 male first-year algebra students in Georgia high schools. Achievement scores were slightly, but not significantly, higher with low complexity lessons, and students preferred the low-complexity lessons. Implications for teaching secondary mathematics are…

Discusses the literacy levels of 46 workers from non-English-speaking backgrounds (NESB) who volunteered as subjects in a Queensland, Australia, research study. The instrument used was the Australian Second Language Proficiency Ratings. Results showed that actual literacy levels of the NESB employees were closer to employer requirements than…

Item analysis data were collected for the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test and Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test, from urban and rural Alberta (Canada) youngsters and Inuit youngsters from the Northwest Territories (Canada). Both tests were inadequate in individual item difficulty levels, suggesting the necessity of revising scoring systems and…

Examines differences in oral narrative discourse of adult second-language learners of English on narrative tasks simulating the ability to describe events in the Here-and-Now versus the There-and-Then. Results indicate that complex tasks elicit less fluent, but more accurate and complex narration than do simpler tasks. (90 references) (Author/CK)

This paper discussed the concept of computer competency and investigated the relationship between students' computer competency and their perception of enjoyment and difficulty level of web-based distance-learning courses. Participants were 237 entering graduate students in library and information science from a mid-southwestern state university…

This report examines the "Performance Indicators in Primary Schools" (PIPS) test as a reliable and cohesive instrument to assess early literacy and numeracy skills among Indigenous children. The process includes the examination of the reliability of the PIPS test using the Cronbach Alpha and the Split-half method with Pearson's r…

This report summarizes Austin Independent School District's prekindergarten program for the 2007-2008 school year.

This study investigated the effects of "signals" in text (headings, previews, and logical connectives) on the reading comprehension of learners of English as a Second Language. Subjects were 232 female Hong Kong secondary school students, all less-skilled readers of English. The subjects read a relatively difficult passage in English on…

This study investigated predictors of Harvard University (Massachusetts) student ratings of courses. Data were drawn from 33,180 evaluations of 1,114 undergraduate courses in 47 departments. Predictors examined at the student level included satisfaction with the course, perceived course difficulty, whether the course was in the student's major,…

This sourcebook presents an approach to teaching students of English as a Second Language (ESL) that integrates communicative competence, cognitive and academic language development, and content instruction. It is intended for use by elementary school teachers of ESL and regular classroom teachers whose classes contain ESL students. An…

This book consists of a collection of stories written by adults who attend a bilingual ESL (English as a Second Language) program co-sponsored by the Toronto Board of Education and Chinese Information and Community Services. All the writings deal with Chinese culture but the book may be used by people of diverse backgrounds and of varying levels…

Response latency information has been used in the past to provide information for consideration along with response accuracy when obtaining trait level estimates, and more recently, to flag unusual response patterns, to establish appropriate time-to-test limits (Reese, 1993), and to determine predictors of the amount of time needed to administer a…

We describe the item modeling development and evaluation process as applied to a quantitative assessment with high-stakes outcomes. In addition to expediting the item-creation process, a model-based approach may reduce pretesting costs, if the difficulty and discrimination of model-generated items may be predicted to a predefined level of…

A discussion of the types and uses of stories in second language instruction argues that the inclination to narrate is an omnipresent human phenomenon, whether attributed to nature or to culture. The story is a means of self-expression and communication that describes different forms of narrative, both literary and nonliterary. The uses and…

Three experiments from the late 1970s concerning second language communication strategies are studied for evidence supporting their classification as either avoidance or achievement strategies. The experiments had as subjects native English-speaking children in a French immersion program, adult second language learners of English who were native…