Serving as a source of questions for researchers to investigate and a resource for professors and their students, this book presents 51 essays that discuss where the reading field has been, is now, and might be going. More than 80% of the essays are new or revised from the third edition. Essays in the book include "Professional Connections:…

Evaluations should be an important component in every model and exchange of the consultation process. Consultation literature includes considerable information on the importance of the inclusion of evaluation at the completion of consultation exchanges, but little emphasis is placed on evaluation and its meaning. Objectives of the study were to:…

In spring 1994, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) collected information on student achievement in reading, U.S. history, and geography at grades 4, 8, and 12. To provide a context for interpreting NAEP findings, the project collected background information from students, teachers, and school administrators using separate…

This paper reports on the effects of an intervention program designed to develop cognitive and affective skills for the study of science by students undertaking a preservice elementary teacher education course. Previous research has indicated that a high proportion of students coming into this course have had negative experience in their previous…

The Book Club project has a focus on research examining literature-based instruction with an emphasis on student-led response groups and this report describes the use of Book Club instruction within a special education resource room, in which elementary-level children incorporated the use of high quality literature, written and oral responses to…

A multi-year program, Project Homeroom, designed to introduce home-based computing to a select group of high school teachers, students, and their parents was recently conducted in three Chicago-area (Illinois) schools. The Technological Innovations in Educational Research Laboratory at Illinois State University (Normal) evaluated this program.…

This study examined the relationship between environmental factors of teaching climate for beginning teachers and the desire to remain in teaching. Data from 23,088 Public School Teacher Questionnaires from the Schools and Staffing Survey longitudinal database were analyzed to determine the effect of environmental demographic factors…

The nine-volume Survey Kit is designed to help readers prepare and conduct surveys and become better users of survey results. All the books in the series contain instructional objectives, exercises and answers, examples of surveys in use, illustrations of survey questions, guidelines for action, checklists of "dos and don'ts," and…

The level of confidence in pass/fail decisions obtained with computer adaptive tests (CATs) was compared to decisions based on paper-and-pencil tests. Subjects included 645 medical technology students from 238 educational programs across the country. The tests used in this study constituted part of the subjects' review for the certification…

In this study, a questionnaire was designed to assess Montessori teachers' reported likelihood of intervention in some 25 common situations in Montessori classrooms for 3-6 year olds, as well as to obtain limited background information on the teachers. Subjects were 422 Montessori teachers including 30 from Trinidad (where the questionnaire was…

Two studies were carried out to evaluate the quality of multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) model parameter estimates obtained from the computer program NOHARM. The purpose of the first study was to compute empirical estimates of the standard errors of the parameters. In addition, the parameter estimates were evaluated for bias and the…

High and low self-monitors were given the task of applying for a position that was or was not a good fit with their personality. Subjects were 97 introductory psychology students who had previously taken the 18-item Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS). They took the SMS again--as if it were being used to decide whether they would be offered a very…

From 1970 to 1985, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) underwent major modifications caused by: (1) the addition of the Test of Standard Written English (TSWE) to the College Board's Admissions Testing Program (ATP); (2) the passage of test disclosure legislation; (3) the institution of test sensitivity reviews; and (4) the use of item response…

Scholastic achievement tests and mental ability tests normally consist of a set of multiple choice items, all of which are assumed to measure school-relevant cognitive abilities. The presumption, in a given test situation, is that the answers/solutions to the given tasks represent cognitive capabilities on the part of the examinees. The purpose of…

This report examines the findings from a series of evaluations of efficacy programs in selected elementary and middle schools in Peoria (Illinois), Detroit (Michigan), Los Angeles (California), and the Ravenswood School District in East Palo Alto (California). An efficacy program initiated in Sacramento is targeted as a research site, but no data…