The cognitive processes students use in doing the 1996 science assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were studied using two booklets from the 1993 NAEP science field test. Blocks of items from these booklets, a hands-on task block and either a conceptual/problem solving block or a theme block, were administered to 16…

This guide, which is intended for individuals involved in planning/operating job clubs for disabled and/or nondisabled junior and senior high school-aged students, contains directions for conducting more than 60 activities in job club settings. The activities are organized into the following seven categories, which have been identified as critical…

This report, the first in a series of six, was developed during Phase II of California's Educational Technology Programs. School-based educational technology projects that were assessed for the study were funded in 1989-90 and implemented in 1990-91. The results from the following staff-developed assessment instruments and evaluation procedures…

An evaluation of a school reform project in one kindergarten through grade 5 school in Atlanta (Georgia) is presented to demonstrate how triangulation of qualitative and quantitative evaluation approaches can enhance understanding of a reform effort. During the 1991-92 school year, the final year of the project, Fowler Drive Elementary School…

This study involved the development and preliminary assessment of an intervention derived from contemporary social-cognitive theory to train academically underprepared college students in academic volitional control strategies, as implied by theory and research on volition and research on academic self-regulation. In this pre-post comparison…

A study of individual variability in second-language learners' performance in specific classroom tasks is presented as evidence that instruction in language for special purposes (LSP) has an important role to play. Subjects were 17 Singapore university students in a remedial English course; all had studied English since elementary school. The…

The Education Resources Center (ERC) is a community-based organization that serves students from various elementary schools united by the Phoenix Coalition for Youth and Families (PCYF). The PCYF Project was authorized to organize agencies and schools in the lower socio-economic areas of inner-city Phoenix into one collaborative arrangement. This…

The degree to which performance assessments meet their dual mandate to evaluate student learning and inform instructional practice is not adequately addressed through traditional concerns for reliability and validity. A possible approach is suggested for examining the cognitive activity students engage in during a performance assessment. The…

This report is one of a series that documents progress in understanding the effects of new assessment based on case studies in three elementary schools. It presents the preliminary analyses of interviews with teachers about their knowledge, beliefs, and practices related to assessment and instruction in reading and mathematics. Changes in beliefs…

Information literacy is the ability to use information purposefully and effectively. It is a holistic, interactive learning process encompassing the skills-based phases of defining, locating, selecting, organizing, presenting, and evaluating information from sources that include books and other media, experiences, and people; being able to…

Peakview Elementary School is a new elementary school that is implementing a number of organizational and teaching strategies advocated by the school restructuring reform movement. Among those strategies is the infusion of more than 80 networked microcomputers with their related technology and software. The impact of this technology on the school…

The English and Spanish scripts of a dialogue between two Hispanic Americans are presented. The brief drama was recorded on videotape, available separately, for use in instructional television. The story illustrates the frustration and anxiety some Hispanics feel while striving for a better life in the United States. A confrontation occurs between…

The Mathematics and Science Partnership Project (MSPP) is a 3-year collaborative effort among the U.S. Department of Education, IBM California Educational Partnership Program, California State University in Bakersfield (California), and the Kern High School District in Bakersfield (California) to impact mathematics and science curricula through…

This project explored university science students' career and educational plans and looked for causes of defection from science, with particular interest in possible sources of gender difference in defection rates. A survey of 164 Canadian undergraduate students in mathematics and basic sciences found that: (1) over three fourths of the students…

The operations of the bookmobile program of the Holmes County (Ohio) Public Library serving the Amish community were explored and observed. The Amish community comprises 40 percent of the entire population of Holmes County. Reading interests of the Amish using the bookmobile are analyzed informally to determine whether bookmobile services are…