A project developed at Indiana University of Pennsylvania was designed to meet the needs of secondary school teachers of French and Spanish in two areas: proficiency maintenance and improvement, and proficiency testing. The program consisted of four phases, two during the funding period and two follow-up. The first, proficiency-building, involved…

The Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP), enacted into law in the fall of 1989, was designed to insure that public college students in Texas would have the basic skills necessary to perform in college-level courses. The TASP law requires that students be tested prior to completing 9 or 15 semester hours of college-level work. The law also requires…

In an effort to determine the relationship between English language/writing skills and academic performance in a college-level U.S. History course, a study was conducted of all students enrolled in freshman U.S. History at Oxnard College (California) in spring 1990. The study sample consisted of 112 students, whose scores on the English Subtest of…

This study examined the effect of school attendance, use of English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) services, and language spoken at home on Hispanic students' performance. The academic performance of 101 Hispanic first graders in intensive, regular, and bilingual programs was measured by standardized test scores in reading and mathematics, and report…

Homeless individuals are eligible for adult education services, such as literacy training and basic skills remediation, under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act. In California, 7 agencies in 1989 and 13 in 1990 were selected as service providers to serve 100 homeless adults each per project year. Each funded agency assessed…

This guide is intended for instructing secondary students in the occupation of clinical services coordinator in a hospital. The first part contains four units on the following subjects: the occupation of clinical services coordinator; interpersonal relationships; ethical/legal aspects; and communications (telephone, intercom, and others). For each…

This theme issue of "Research and Creative Activity" features six articles on Indiana University faculty whose work on various campuses continues to broaden and advance knowledge about "Literacy and Learning". The articles are as follows: "New Ways to Teach Reading" (about the work of John McEneaney, Assistant…

The speaking ability of 40 Finnish college students of English as a Second Language was assessed in tests of interactional and transactional language function. In the interactional test, the learner introduced a topic of his choice and attempted to converse with two native speakers of English. In the transactional test, the learner watched a video…

The Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) results of 81 West Virginia home-schooled children in grades 3, 6, 9, and 11 were analyzed. Means of each sub-section of these CTBS scores were analyzed for significant differences from the West Virginia public school means for the respective grades and subsections. Families of the children tested…

A project was conducted to determine whether vocational interest and ability measures can help high school students identify vocational education programs in which they will experience satisfaction and success. Six Career Planning Program (CPP) interest measures and 15 ability measures were administered to 2,101 seniors in 19 area…

Two papers are presented that resulted from the Instructional Assessment Project of the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. Both relate to models for assuring assessment validity. The first paper--"Assessing the Content Validity of Teachers' Reports of Content Coverage and Its Relationship to Student…

An Indonesian study on prereading strategies for reading in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is reported. Three areas were examined: (1) differences in the reading achievement of groups receiving AO ("advance organizer" or meaningful verbal learning, based on the learning theory of David Ausubel) techniques or "Daftar Kata-Kata…

This guide for aviation pilot training begins with a course description, resource information, and a course outline. Tasks/competencies are categorized into 12 concept/duty areas: understanding safe procedures in the flight environment; understanding safe procedures in the airport environment; understanding Federal Aviation Regulations concerning…

A statistical report, comprised largely of six tables of school district data, is presented to provide an overview of the educational status of New York State-supported elementary schools and secondary schools for the 1989-90 school year. Tables include: (1) racial/ethnic distributions of enrollment, attendance rate, dropouts, youth at risk, and…

This report summarizes conclusions and recommendations of an interdisciplinary committee which considered ways to improve the identification and auditory management of hearing-impaired children in Wisconsin schools. Major recommendations include: (1) the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) should license educational audiologists and encourage…