A project reviewed 54 commercially available multimedia products with literature as the subject matter, to determine what pedagogical approaches steered the design of literature software, and whether these were aligned with response-based views of literature teaching/learning. Findings indicated that the design of commercial products advocates an…

This study assessed whether girls and boys write differently in their reader response journals for the classes of one sixth-grade teacher over 2 years. A literature-based reading program was used, and the students kept reader response journals. Journals from 9 girls and 11 boys from the first year and 8 girls and 8 boys from the second year were…

The State Department of Education is releasing the domain specifications of the New Mexico High School Competency Examination (NMHSCE) for educator use because the Spring 1996 administration of the test will be in a different form. The NMHSCE is a high school graduation requirement in New Mexico. It assesses students' competence in writing,…

Two editions of the Verbal and Mathematical portions of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) were used to study differential speededness and differential omission and the relationships among differential item functioning (DIF), differential omission, and item difficulty for Asian Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, and females in a total sample exceeding…

In a study of the attitudes of early childhood professionals, 63 preschool teachers of children ages 3 through 5 and 20 preschool center directors in Naperville, Illinois were surveyed. Statements in the survey were developed using the guidelines from the National Association for the Education of Young Children concerning developmentally…

A major argument against evaluation of teacher performance by students pertains to the instruments being used. Colleges conduct instructional evaluation using instruments they devise, borrow, adopt, or adapt from other institutions. Whether these instruments are tested for content validity is unknown. This study determined how evaluation questions…

Multilog (Thissen, 1991) was used to estimate parameters of 225 items from the Quebec Adaptive Behavior Scale (QABS). A database containing actual data from 2,439 subjects was used for the parameterization procedures. The two-parameter-logistic model was used in estimating item parameters and in the testing strategy. MicroCAT (Assessment Systems…

Theory and research on the development and maintenance of depression have emphasized both cognitive and interpersonal processes. One potential integration of interpersonal and cognitive models of depression is offered by symbolic interactionism, which argues that the self-concept is derived from our perception of how significant others view us.…

This paper describes a workshop designed to lead teachers toward the use of open ended response questions rather than multiple choice items. The rationale was based on the assumption that assessment will become more authentic because it will measure depth of understanding and deal with both content and process. Authentic assessment is defined as…

A two-dimensional, compensatory item response model and a unidimensional model were fitted to the reading and mathematics items in the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised for a sample of 1,000 adults aged 20-39 years. Multidimensional information theory predicts that if the unidimensional abilities can be represented as vectors in…

An Israeli study determined what happens when persons with low-literacy levels read news accounts that presuppose general knowledge that the writer expects them to have, but that they may not necessarily possess. The study sample consisted of about 600 students, mostly women, in 30 literacy centers throughout the country. In each class, adult…

This study was conducted in order to determine how beginning teachers evaluated preservice teacher education and performance. A survey was conducted of University of North Florida graduates who had been hired by school systems within the state of Florida. The graduates were asked to rate themselves on 27 generic teaching competencies and to write…

This paper describes and analyzes an incident which occurred during observation and videotaping of an eighth-grade language arts class. This classroom observation was part of an ongoing case study of an eighth-grade teacher of Native American heritage. The vignette that is presented describes a fist fight that occurred between two male students in…

This book clarifies current efforts to reform teaching by providing a conceptual analysis of what a professional and a bureaucratic view of teaching entail. Case studies are presented illustrating what happens when differing approaches to teachers' work are tried in three school districts. The first chapter describes the two approaches to reform…

This document summarizes the public response to the National Education Goals Panel's call for feedback on its work. Copies of the second annual "National Education Goals Report" had been sent to the Chief State School Officer in each state and territory. Twenty-seven of 55 chief officers replied to a request for their opinions of the…