The experience of an elementary school implementing the Touchstones Program--an approach to assessment within the proposed National Curriculum (NC) in England--is described, after which teacher reaction to the NC and fundamental beliefs about the nature of education are considered. The Touchstones assessment consist of 10 cross-curricular group…

Results of new research into the anomalous results of the 1986 reading portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are reported. The original analysis of the 1986 data indicated that the estimated performance level of 9- and 17-year-old students had dropped dramatically since 1984, whereas the performance of 13-year-olds had…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) collects statistics on the condition of education in the United States, analyzes and reports the meaning and significance of these statistics, and assists states and local education agencies in improving their statistical systems. This publication contains a summary of all recent data collections…

The differential performance of black and white college freshmen on a direct measure of writing skills, the essay portion of the American College Testing Program's Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP), was studied. The data consisted of responses of a sample of 998 black and 3,727 white examinees to two individual prompts for…

The national language of Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia, although there are hundreds of languages and dialects spoken by different ethnic groups. In 1977, more than 26 million Indonesians were illiterate in their national language. Present efforts to eradicate illiteracy include construction of 10,000-15,000 primary schools annually since 1973 and…

Future arrangements for financing child care in Canada is the subject of the five research studies in this volume. The studies were commissioned as part of an effort to provide detailed analyses of issues of special relevance to child care and parental leave policies and the effects of such issues on the changing Canadian family. Paper 1 provides…

Organizations and programs related to migrant education are cited in this directory containing entries based on responses received through mail and telephone surveys. Entries are listed alphabetically by state within the following categories: national activities (7 entries), migrant education resource centers (8), Section 143 migrant education…

This report is a record of a one-day seminar sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The theme of the conference was the timely issue of the role of nonpublic schools in educating American children. The participants were: (1) representatives of private schools, (2) federal policymakers; and (3) researchers. Jay Noell…

This overview of the use of computers in education begins by tracing the history of the development of computer programs for instruction in three developed countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Significant research and programs, general trends, the current situation, plans, and problems in each of the countries are…

The introduction of computers and other microelectronic equipment throughout the Japanese economy has not affected employment negatively, owing to economic growth and the adaptability of the workers and business organizations affected. Because rapid advances in technology are making many specialized skills and areas of knowledge obsolete, it is…

New developments in testing in the United Kingdom (UK) since 1965 are described. Standardized testing at the local level declined dramatically with the widespread introduction of comprehensive secondary education. However, in the late 1970's widespread local testing programs were re-introduced for the purposes of monitoring student progress,…

This document is a compilation of 20 papers from a seminar on educational policy and strategy for educating the indigenous peoples of Latin America and Mexico. There is a growing awareness among linguistics and anthropology specialists and educators of the necessity to validate education that respects the values of an indigenous culture. This…

Representing a first attempt by English teachers in Scotland to address a professional mandate that they teach and assess the modes of talking and listening, this booklet outlines both the scope and the details of an oral/aural syllabus. The eight chapters in the booklet cover the following areas: (1) the oral syllabus--principles and approaches;…

The document describes the 18-month Phase I of the On Farm Management Project--supported by the World Bank and operated by Colorado State University and the Consortium for International Development--to design more systematic approaches to train people who will work in technical settings related to water management and irrigation channel…

Two basic approaches to language treatment have been defined, the policy approach and the cultivation approach. The former deals with the selection of a national language, standardization, literacy, orthography, and the stratification of code varieties, and is a macro approach. The latter concerns correctness, efficiency, specialized functions,…