This study investigated specific conditions under which out-of-scale information improves measurement precision and the factors that influence the degree of reliability gains and the amount of bias induced in the reported scores when out-of-scale information is used. In-scale information is information that an item provides for a composite trait…

This report examines issues in the scale-up of assessment software from the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). "Scale-up" is used in a metaphorical sense, meaning adding new assessment tools to CRESST's assessment software. During the past several years, CRESST has been developing and evaluating a…

StoryWeb is a teaching technique that combines elements of the short story and the Internet to provide an interactive simulation for students using differentiated content, product, and process. This paper describes one StoryWeb unit and indicates how one could implement the unit in a middle school U.S. History course. A StoryWeb unit uses the…

The California city of Rancho Cucamonga has been given the task of developing a 4-square-mile area into a productive venture. There is already freeway access and a cargo railroad line, but sewer lines and various other services must be added. This lesson plan stipulates that student teams, each representing a specific interest in the business…

Two experiments reproduced in a simulated computerized test-taking situation the effect of two of the main determinants in answering an item in a test: the difficulty of the item and the time available to answer it. A model is proposed for the time to respond or abandon an item and for the probability of abandoning it or answering it correctly. In…

This paper focuses on one method used to introduce model design and creation using StarLogo to a group of high school teachers. Teachers with model-building skills can easily customize modeling environments for their classes. More importantly, model building can enable teachers to approach their curricula from a more holistic perspective, as well…

Discusses the use of the METRO-APEX program to provide a simulated real world'' experience of managing air quality in urban regions. Concludes that the students involved are strengthened in business and natural, applied, and political sciences and given a proper insight into the professional behavior. (CC)

This paper describes a study that attempts to measure the influence of a commercially available game, Marketplace, on student achievement is economic understanding and student attitudes toward the instructional process and selected economic concepts. (Author)

Discusses the establishment of an environmental systems laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh with the support of the Sloan Foundation. Indicates that the "real world" can be brought into the laboratory by simulating on computers, software systems, and data bases. (CC)

A discussion of SAFE (Simulating Alternative Futures in Education), a computerized classroom game which synthesizes the growing body of futurist techniques and literature into a meaningful learning experience for students of social change. (Author)

Article investigated teaching methods that stimulate students toward learning content in an introductory American government course. (RK)

Discusses the construction of a diffractometer table and four microwave models which are built of styrofoam balls with implanted metallic reflecting spheres and designed to simulate the structures of carbon (graphite structure), sodium chloride, tin oxide, and palladium oxide. Included are samples of Bragg patterns and computer-analysis results.…

Articles describes SAFE, a newly developed and tested computerized simulation game for preparing educators, or any students of social change, for the use of simulation and the systems approach to studying complex interrelationships and social dynamics. (Author)

A chart of the major action points in the course of developing tests for training evaluation and for qualifying trainees provides a framework for discussing the problems and practices of test development. Performance standards are the most common sources of trouble; the test developer must have unequivocal standards to work from. (AJ)