A study examined teachers' training, practices, and values for using the report card to communicate their knowledge of students' literacy achievement. Subjects, 48 elementary, middle, secondary, and college preparatory teachers from 10 school districts in 5 states, completed a questionnaire designed to elicit teachers' perspectives on the report…

Report-card marking items by which elementary school students' noncognitive classroom behaviors are graded were studied to establish a preliminary classification of behavioral assessment domains. Two studies were conducted. The first study employed a cluster-analytic approach to a pool of 136 noncognitive behavior-marking items that had been…

The paper addresses problems and strategies for evaluating mainstreamed students in vocational education classes. In addition to grading concerns, the area of graduation requirements is also considered. Alternatives to traditional methods of evaluation, including competencey based evaluation and adaptation of assessment techniques are described as…

Examines current grading procedures and expresses the desire that children succeed in school, not because of the threat of grades, but because they are interested and motivated.

Author looks into the workings of the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board. (Editor/RK)

Analyzes some of the possible causes for the low popularity of high school physics, including tough grading practices, the fact that physics is required more often than it is elected, the practice of teaching physics by lectures, and the lack of a methodology in teaching abstract concepts. (MLH)

The JMB, Syllabus B, O level oral examination in French is commented on by an ex-examiner. Mention is made of ways in which candidates lose marks and of the need for teachers to know more about the marking system. (RM)

The contract system where the student makes his own decision about the grade he desires and then works toward the achievement of that goal is examined. Five pass/fail assignments for a U.S. history course are suggested as possible student tasks. (DE)

A guide to help instructors establish grading policies and practices or review and revise current grading procedures is presented. Advantages/disadvantages of four common comparisons used to determine grades are considered: comparisons with other students, comparisons with established standards, and comparisons based on learning relative to…

Listening is an integral element of the curricular goals of all modern foreign language classrooms because it is: (1) a motivator and facilitator, (2) a reliable predictor of language learning success, and (3) a skill contributing to success in many endeavors in life. A variety of classroom teaching and testing procedures based on listening skills…

A control study involving 26 college students was undertaken to determine reasons why they generally claim to prefer "easy" professors, while contradictory evidence is offered by evaluation research. The subjects were randomly assigned to conditions in which each made anonymous or non-anonymous evaluations of four hypothetical male…

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of handwriting on the grades assigned to essays. Contrary to previous studies, this study employed a grading situation in which teachers holistically evaluated many papers as rapidly as possible simulating real grading conditions. Good handwriting was defined as that done by five experts in the…

A study examined the grading patterns in basic public speaking and communication courses. It was hypothesized that female students would receive higher grades in basic performance and nonperformance communication courses than would male students. The grades for one academic quarter in two nonperformance communication courses and one public…