This research investigated the influence of parental involvement on the academic achievement of 1,714 Mexican-American 8th-grade students, a subsample of the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS 88). A structural equation model was used to investigate the direct, indirect, and total effects of parental involvement, previous academic…

A democratic model of educational evaluation and some policy recommendations to develop culturally appropriate evaluation are presented. The traditional hard science paradigm in research must be replaced with evaluation designed to feed back to communities of varying cultural backgrounds. The most fundamental assumption of the new model is…

This literature review focuses on approaches to measuring and improving the self-concept of young children with special needs. Two particular models dominate the debate on the self-concept construct: the perceptual model (in which self-concept is equated with a self-description formed during the preschool years) and an operational model (in which…

This learning module for a high school course in communications technology is designed to help teachers introduce students to computer-aided design (CAD) using a Macintosh SE with MacDraft to draw floor plans. The module contains seven objectives/competencies, a content outline, suggested instructor methodology, descriptions of demonstrations and…

A music teacher used the Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation (MECC) study guide to implement a 10-week practicum intervention designed to increase sixth graders' retention of musical terminology. A total of 12 beginning band students used a computer-aided instruction program to review questions drawn from workbook materials they had…

This book is designed to help new faculty members in engineering and the sciences become effective teachers and researchers. Part 1 focuses on teaching, and includes six chapters which cover: characteristics of student learning, planning a course, conducting discussions and lectures, preparing examinations and assignments for students, and working…

The purpose of this study was to describe the cognitive styles of both international and domestic graduate students attending Marshall University (West Virginia). A total of 41 American and international graduate students were administered the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), and 20 of the international students were interviewed. The study…

This report describes a project that is part of a national assessment program in Sweden under which the performance and attitudes of students in the 5th and 9th years of the compulsory school are being studied. The study focuses on the description of classroom activities and attained goals as well as on attitudes towards the subject, English as a…

When the North Dakota State Department of Education mandated new guidelines for accreditation, each school district in the state was required to develop and implement student performance standards and measurements for every curricular area. This paper describes one district's approach to developing a performance assessment program. Teacher…

This book discusses the crusade for educational excellence since the early 1980s. It argues that the reform movement has failed to adequately address the extraordinary degree of alienation and apathy among secondary school students and teachers, and the schools' contribution to the problem, i.e., there exists a human element of the education…

This study investigated the relative freshman-year cognitive impacts of five two-year and six four-year colleges and universities drawn from all sections of the United States. The overall sample was 2,685 freshmen students participating in a national longitudinal study and of these the final sample contained 811 students, 280 attending five…

Authentic assessment, as referred to in this book, encompasses meaningful tasks, positive interaction between teachers and students, methods that emphasize higher-order thinking skills, and strategies that allow students to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning. Most important, authentic assessment means helping students to apply and…

The restructuring of the Romance language program at Howard University to improve oral proficiency involved modification of goals, syllabi, classroom activities, and testing. Goals were adapted to American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)/Educational Testing Service (ETS) guidelines for oral proficiency. Assessment of French…

This guide provides instructors of business computer programming with a curriculum correlated directly to the office education essential elements mandated by the Texas Education Agency. Introductory materials include a scope and sequence and lists of suggested textbooks, resource books, software, audiovisuals, and magazines. Eleven units are…

A study assessed the practical use of the simplified speech pattern approach to teaching lipreading in a tone language by comparing performance using an acoustic hearing-aid and a Sivo-aid in a tone labelling task. After initial assessment, subjects were given training to enhance perception of lexically contrastive tones, then post-tested. The…