This book is intended for teachers who want to integrate high-quality children's literature into the language arts curriculum. The illustrated book provides a host of small-group workshops for children in kindergarten through second grade, planned around storybooks they love. Each workshop suggested in the book is geared to specific High/Scope…

An instrument was developed and used with grade 11 students and university teacher education students (intending English teachers) in British Columbia to explore their beliefs about appropriate ways to interpret segments of Shakespeare's "Macbeth." This is the second is a series of instruments designed to explore students' and teachers'…

This study examined format differences in the measurement of fifth grade students' reading comprehension achievement. Children were given a multiple-choice reading comprehension test, followed 4 weeks later by a constructed response test on 2 of the same text passages. Results indicated that little comprehension of text content was transferred…

The book brings together a unique set of "leadership voices" to explore the contemporary nature of school leadership. This book brings together some of the major leadership themes so that the reader can access key aspects and dimensions of leadership in one place, written by leading authorities in the field. The book aims to bridge the gap…

Given current high-stakes uses of tests, one of the most pressing and difficult problems confronting the field of measurement is to develop better methods for distinguishing between meaningful gains in performance and score inflation. This study explores the potential usefulness of adapting differential item functioning (DIF) techniques for this…

This lesson plan for teaching students about the epic poem of India, the "Ramayana," encompasses literary, artistic, and moral themes. The lesson plan states that: (1) students are told the story; (2) students illustrate a part of the story; and (3) students write the moral lessons to be derived from the "Ramayana." The lesson…

A group of fourth-grade students with disabilities participating in statewide mathematics assessments in the spring of 2001 (n=570) was given a new assessment focused on specifically modified state curricular standards defined for students with disabilities. A block of items from that assessment was also given to students taking the general…

The Rasch Model is an item response theory, one parameter model developed that states that the probability of a correct response is a function of the difficulty of the item and the ability of the candidate. Item banking is useful for language testing. The Rasch Model provides estimates of item difficulties that are meaningful, irrespective of…

Multidimensionality is known to affect the accuracy of item parameter and ability estimations, which subsequently influences the computation of item characteristic curves (ICCs) and true scores. By judiciously combining sections of a Law School Admission Test (LSAT), 11 sections of varying degrees of uni- and multidimensional structures are used…

This study investigated whether differences in the dimensional structure of the form of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) across selected ethnic subgroups of test takers had any impact on equating results using an item response theory (IRT) true-score procedure. Whether there were any differences in the underlying latent trait composite across…

This book exposes the various manifestations of mistreatment of teachers by principals, offering practical solutions for its prevention and correction. Information comes from a study involving interviews with elementary and secondary teachers from rural, suburban, and urban areas across the United States and Canada. The book provides tools…

Person-fit statistics have been proposed to investigate the fit of an item score pattern to an item response theory (IRT) model. This study investigated how these statistics can be used to detect different types of misfit. Intelligence test data for 992 people at or beyond college level were analyzed using person-fit statistics in the context of…

Twenty-four Piagetian-based written items representing different forms (stages) of thought and different logical operations were solved by 553 participants from required introductory logic classes in a state university in a medium-sized midwestern city and from a suburban school district of that city. Responses to each item were scored by quality…

This paper argues that an individualist view of teaching and learning, based on a Cartesian world-view leads to the abdication of responsibility as educators of the emotions. A sociogenic perspective is proposed that urges that schools teach learners how to feel as well as how to learn. The classroom is a setting rich in opportunities for…

Taking off from the perception that the current critical climate blurs most meaningful distinctions between fiction and nonfiction, this book examines what happens when writers and readers encounter texts presented as nonfiction--texts that make some truth claim on outside experience, texts whose characters and events have at least some tangible…