Rank ordering examinees is an easier task for judges than is awarding numerical ratings. A measurement model for rankings based on Rasch's objectivity axioms provides linear, sample-independent and judge-independent measures. Estimates of examinee measures are obtained from the data set of rankings, along with standard errors and fit statistics.…

The current status of item response theory (IRT) is discussed. Several IRT methods exist for assessing whether an item is biased. Focus is on methods proposed by L. M. Rudner (1975), F. M. Lord (1977), D. Thissen et al. (1988) and R. L. Linn and D. Harnisch (1981). Rudner suggested a measure of the area lying between the two item characteristic…

Two modification formulas are presented for the test information function in order to provide better measures of local accuracies of the estimation of "theta" when maximum likelihood estimation is used to provide the estimate of ability "theta." A minimum bound of any estimator, biased or unbiased, is considered; and Formula 1…

Reader-response journals were successfully employed in a "Reading Shakespeare" course for non-majors, making literary tradition accessible to students untrained in classical rhetoric. Students were encouraged to employ any combination of four approaches. First, students were invited to ask questions about the language, sequence of…

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential of a self-study project which required explicit self-monitoring as a tool for initiating reflection in a group of novice teachers during their student teaching experience. The study was structured to encourage student teachers to bring to a conscious level of awareness a problem within their…

The thinking and decision making of expert and novice teachers were studied during three stages of teacher decision making: (1) preactive or planning, (2) interactive or actual teaching, and (3) postactive evaluation and reflection. The novices were five student teachers and the experts were their five cooperating teachers. Differences found…

This paper reviews the literature about item response models for the subject level and aggregated level (group level). Group-level item response models (IRMs) are used in the United States in large-scale assessment programs such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the California Assessment Program. In the Netherlands, these…

Offering activities for secondary school students and amateur creative writers, this book demonstrates how teachers can break out of "high culture" stereotypes that make students think poetry has no connection with real life. Part one discusses the essentials of poetry and the roles of poets from ancient oral cultures to the present. The…

Elements from literary, composition, and reader-response theory can be successfully combined in teaching an African-American literature class to college students of the dominant culture. Helping students to decode texts is of primary importance, best done by introducing students to the cultural codes used by minority writers to shape their themes.…

The goal of school staff members is to support the teaching and learning missions of students by establishing an environment that promotes these missions. Adults and authority figures can help stabilize the environment by providing sufficient structure to guide the exercise of student freedom. Because of varied definitions and personal…

A study was conducted to write an ethnographic description of how the influences of the reader's culture and the culture depicted in a text are associated with the responses of first-semester college freshmen to a series of contemporary Appalachian short stories. Cultural backgrounds of six informants and the cultures depicted in six stories were…

Theatre educators are discovering that censorship is on the rise in the United States. The censorship takes three forms: (1) formal (i.e., when a school official forbids a performance or mandates cuts in words or actions); (2) informal (i.e., when a person or group tries to pressure the presenter to make changes in a production or influence the…

The Type A disease association may be obscured by the failure of epidemiological studies to take into account the person by situation nature of the Type A construct. Past research suggests that it is not coping with demand that is stressful for Type As, but rather the perception that the job or life event is less than completely controllable that…

This paper focuses on the mental health consequences of the disaster in Armero, Colombia which resulted from a volcanic eruption and mudslide, and highlights the role of the primary care worker in delivering mental health care to disaster victims. Eight characteristics of disasters that are closely related to their psychopathogenetic potential…

Little information is available on therapeutic interventions or counseling techniques used with sexually abused children. Many experts consider parental and family support to be the single most important factor in preventing abuse from becoming a life destroying event. The goals of therapy are to make the child and family feel better about…