A Puerto Rican teacher of an eighth grade consisting of 33 students (19 girls and 14 boys) at a racially-mixed public middle school found that teaching students about race and gender is a risky venture. The median age of the students was 13.8. The racial demographics were as follows: 45% African-American, 31% Euro-American, 18% Latino, 3%…

This report analyzes data from the 1982, 1985, and 1992 Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). Analysis focuses on the role of race/ethnicity in arts participation. Arts participation is defined as involvement in a listed activity at least once in the past 12 months. Race is defined along categories used by the U.S. Bureau of Census.…

Intended as a an aid to classroom teachers, this 52-page handbook presents a literature unit based on the children and young people's book, "Dragon's Gate" by Laurence Yep. It begins with sample lesson plans, pre-reading activities, author information, a book summary, vocabulary lists and suggested vocabulary activities. Next, chapters…

Designed to be used by practicing teachers, students who are learning to become teachers, and faculty members who instruct such students, this manual describes how to use attending cues and responses to help children with mild disabilities attend to the important aspects of instructional activities, and how to use attending cues and responses to…

In February 1993, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting commissioned focus groups with Hispanic viewers to determine the perceptions of public television by Hispanics. The project was conducted by Norman Hecht Research and included Hispanic viewers and non-viewers in four cities--New York, Miami, San Antonio, and Los Angeles. The topic for…

This paper considers the implementation of Student Performance Standards (SPS) in Queensland, Australia, and their implications for teacher education. Student testing procedures in various Australian states and territories are described. A theoretical framework, grounded in Australian educational history, is elaborated for understanding the…

This booklet is intended to help teachers, aides, and parents of preschool-age children to establish desirable behaviors and eliminate inappropriate behaviors in their children. Following a list of definitions, the booklet discusses how to discriminate between different types of behavior and how to choose the appropriate level of response. Major…

The Literature Project is a literature-based reading program designed to meet the needs of adolescent females with behavioral/emotional disorders, adolescent female offenders, and adolescent females at risk. The project uses novels and short stories written by and for women as basic reading material. Literary selections with heroines who are…

The first mail reinterview ever conducted by the Census Bureau was conducted as part of the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) of 1991. Because there were some questions about the reliability of items from the 1988 SASS reinterview, the 1991 study was examined by a mail reinterview. The methodology and responses are discussed, and response…

This study is based on data from a state-wide assessment that included both multiple-choice and constructed-response items. The intent of the study was to see whether item types make a difference in gender results. The items on both tests were categorized according to whether they assessed procedural knowledge, concepts, problem solving, or…

A study examined how a teacher accommodated diversity in a fifth-grade classroom in an inner-city school during a 2-year project involving literature-based reading instruction with small student-led response groups called Book Clubs. The Book Club project operated in the classroom using the four components of literacy instruction--reading,…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) focuses on providing information on what demographic subgroups of America's students know and can do. Because the NAEP does not report for individual students, it could be classified by some students as a low-risk test. Consequently, some students may lack proper motivation for giving their…

The cognitive structure of an algebra test was defined and validated using the linear test model (LLTM) and quadratic assignment (QA) techniques. The LLTM is an extension of the Rasch model with a linear constraint that describes item difficulty in terms of the cognitive operations required to solve the item. The model permits the specification of…

A cross-curricular comparison focused on learner interpretations of beginning reading and writing instruction in skills-based and whole language inner-city classrooms across kindergarten and first grade. Subjects, 48 low socioeconomic-status students in four classrooms in two midwestern cities, were observed during literacy instruction twice…

The impact of test item multidimensionality was examined as it affected fitting items on a teacher licensure test to an item response theory (IRT) model. Test item data from the 1990 study of G. W. Guiton and G. Delandshere are used. The Connecticut Elementary Certification Test (CONNECT) is a licensure examination designed to assess the subject…