Several leaders in education have concluded that the United States should have some form of national achievement testing. Such tests are proposed as part of the "America 2000" education strategy. Believing that the experience of other countries will be useful to educators, policymakers, and concerned citizens, the National Endowment for…

This practicum was designed to: improve the skills of personnel working with students with severe and/or profound handicaps in junior high school; to improve staff development; and to increase the consistency of services offered in a community-based instruction program for K-12. A needs assessment survey of 10 staff members determined the level of…

The purpose of this study was to gauge the need for teaching preservice teachers about sex stereotyping and to determine whether a general or specific teaching approach would be more effective. The sample consisted of 50 students from two sections of a core teacher-training course at the University of Utah. Information about stereotyping was…

One of the main objectives in health education in the New Zealand national curriculum is that students should be helped to take responsibility for their own health. However, most decisions about health programmes in primary schools are made by adults. This paper reports findings from a study which sought the views of primary children about their…

Questions are raised about conventional notions of social work education by introducing field-derived data of how social workers use knowledge in everyday worklife, particularly in the field. Two typical social work units (public and private) totalling 24 social workers were the main foci for data collection, and additional subjects and social…

This report contains the findings from a survey of over 38,000 youth in grades 7, 9, 11, and the first year of college or university, designed to obtain a cross-sectional perspective of the development of knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Also included…

The congruence of expectations of industrial managers concerning the preparation of college graduates and what university professional schools are attempting to provide was explored. The focus was the aerospace and banking industries. Interviews were conducted with 24 senior executives from 13 corporations to determine what industry requires of…

Alternatives for testing the achievement of college students in Maryland are reviewed by committee members appointed by the State Board for Higher Education and Maryland's public institutions of higher education. The achievement testing alternatives would be a means of assessing institutional effectiveness; all entail the use of tests currently in…

Experiences of Eastern New Mexico University in conducting a student outcomes study are described. After tracing the background of the study, the following outcome dimensions are described: knowledge outcomes, skills outcomes, attitudes and values, student relationship with the university, and occupational outcomes. The university's Student…

According to the ACT theory of skill acquisition, cognitive skills are encoded by a set of productions, which are organized according to a hierarchical goal structure. People solve problems in new domains by applying weak problem-solving procedures to declarative knowledge they have about this domain. From these initial problem solutions,…

This investigation sought to determine the extent to which examiners' evaluations of writing performance were influenced by the learning disability label and to identify mediating variables which modify expectancy effects. Forty-four preservice regular education teachers were randomly assigned to one of two expectancy conditions (learning-disabled…

Exercises from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) third mathematics assessment are provided in this released exercise set. Exercises were administered to 9-year-olds, 13-year-olds, and 17-year-olds. Some exercises were administered to only one age group, others to two or more age groups. The set is divided into two parts: text…

Evidence that elementary school children possess inadequate economic knowledge is presented, and four arguments are outlined for the importance of economics education in the public schools: (1) economic knowledge is essential to civic duty in a democracy; (2) economic knowledge is important when individuals attempt to function rationally in a…

The effort to make the Connecticut Elementary Education Certification Examination (EECE) reflect the skills and knowledge essential to successful beginning teaching is described. This instrument is planned as part of an assessment system being created by the Connecticut State Department of Education. The first element of the program is a basic…

The validation of Tennessee's Pre-Professional Skills Tests (PPST) is described. Panels of experts from teacher education institutions and local school districts performed the test item review, focusing on test validity and minimum requirements for admission to teacher education programs. Participants (136 teacher educators, 108 high school…