A survey of 21 special education administrators in Ohio revealed that they perceived that special education teachers should be involved in multicultural educational training programs with special emphasis on African-American students and their families. Results also revealed that personnel responsible for conducting such in-service programs may…

A survey of 52 state directors of special education found that very few states require regular education administrators to complete a special education law course, though many states did require an introductory special education course. The number of due process hearings in states was not related to findings on endorsement requirements.…

A model for predicting organized youth sport participation readiness has four predictive components: sport-related fundamental motor skill development; sport-specific knowledge; motivation; and socialization. Physical maturation is also important. The model emphasizes the importance of preparing children for successful participation through…

Studies of the relationship between students' propositional knowledge (as measured by concept mapping tasks) and their study strategies (as measured by self-report questionnaires) for electricity in first-year university courses are described. The effect of propositional knowledge and prior knowledge on both conceptual knowledge and study…

Describes efforts to infuse an international perspective into Clarion University of Pennsylvania's social studies methods course. Reports results of a pretest indicating poor knowledge of and interest in social studies among education majors. Discusses course activities, materials, and requirements. Concludes that knowledge and interest in global…

Study examined factors associated with adolescents' knowledge of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and perceived risk of human immunodeficiency infection (HIV). Results of a health risk survey indicated that minority youth, particularly IV drug users, had the most need of intensive, specialized HIV/AIDS education. (SM)

This study, involving 34 third graders, assessed the differential effects of a specific and general strategy on experts and novices' transfer and maintenance performance of part-whole addition and subtraction word problems using dynamic assessment. Dynamic assessment indicated important differences between experts and novices. (Author/JDD)

Evaluation of knowledge and attitudes of 220 adolescents with severe emotional disturbances toward AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection found most students knew the main modes of HIV transmission. Student age, race, and gender were related to level of knowledge and attitudes toward people with…

Analyzed national data to identify characteristics that distinguished early and late coital behavior among black adolescent females. Compared to early coital initiators, late coital initiators were better informed about sexual issues and were exposed to life circumstances that encouraged them to delay sexual onset (two-parent families, higher…

Stanford University's Teacher Assessment Project studied teacher assessment by situating teacher thinking and acting within circumstances attributable to subject matter, grade level, and sociocultural context. The article examines why, if assessments are to improve educational quality in diverse classrooms, they must hold all teachers accountable…

Semistructured interviews may help in assessing teacher knowledge. Stanford University's Teacher Assessment Project (TAP) distinguished exemplary teachers by incorporating semistructured interviews into assessment center exercises. The paper describes TAP's elementary mathematics lesson planning exercise, noting ways that experienced teacher…

Issues concerning the selection of judges for standard setting are discussed. Determining the consistency of judges' recommendations, or their congruity with other expert recommendations, would help in selection. Enough judges must be chosen to allow estimation of recommendations by an entire population of judges. (SLD)

Thirty-six testwise and 41 test-naive high school seniors in British Columbia (Canada) were tested to determine their abilities to apply selected test wiseness principles according to a proposed model of test-taking behavior. To apply the testwiseness strategy, students first needed knowledge of the content tested and test item content. (SLD)

Study examined trends in the signing skills of parents of deaf children. Of 50 deaf individuals, 73 percent of deaf children (ages 4-18) reported their parents knew some sign language, whereas older individuals (ages 41-76) reported only 22 percent of their parents knew some sign language. Younger offspring rated their parents' signing skills…

College students with prelingual deafness were assessed on their knowledge of English syntax at the beginning and end of the academic year. Results revealed significant improvement on nine English structures assessed; students with lower general English proficiency improved to a greater extent than other students. (Author/JDD)