The Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) is designed to improve curriculum and instruction in the public schools. The MEAP tests all students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in major curriculum areas biennially. The test is not designed to yield scores for individual students. This document describes the content of the assessment instruments…

In the spring of 1988, Massachusetts conducted its second Educational Assessment Program to assess the performance of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies. Students' responses to open-ended questions in one form of the reading test were studied. One-twelfth of the fourth-graders, one-sixteenth of the…

The construct validity of a multidimensional adolescent self-concept was estimated separately for males and females, and the results were compared across gender. The application of four multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approaches to estimating construct validity was demonstrated, and the scope and consistency of the findings derived from each were…

Details of the design and data analysis associated with the 1988 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are presented. The 1988 NAEP surveyed American students' knowledge of reading, writing, civics, U.S. history, and geography. Small-scale studies were conducted for mathematics and science. Populations included public school students…

A study examined whether patterns exist in the kinds and amounts of writing errors students make and whether teachers follow any sort of pattern in correcting these errors. Sixty compositions, gathered from a twelfth grade class taught by one teacher, were analyzed using the "McGraw-Hill Handbook of English." Student written errors were…

The Cooperative Health Occupations Assistants Program (CHOAP) is a two-year program for high school juniors and seniors in the Chicago (Illinois) public school system. CHOAP has three purposes: to acquaint young people with the scope of career opportunities in the health field, to prepare them for entry jobs in the field, and to help students make…

An investigation of biology matriculation tests in Israel was undertaken to assess the use of justifications with multiple-choice items and to compare the effect of three item formats on students' performance. More specifically, the study was designed to determine the: (1) extent to which justifications will differ if the correct answer is made…

This guide is intended for use in teaching a course in construction planning and design. During the course, students learn how to use the project delivery process to design low-rise buildings and civil projects, simulate working in an architecture/engineering office that is organized into design teams, and use various management tools to monitor…

The purposes of this study were to: (1) examine the psychometric properties of the Ball Aptitude Battery (BAB) on a high school freshman sample; (2) develop BAB norms for high school freshmen; (3) develop and evaluate four memory tests and a vocabulary test appropriate for freshmen; (4) examine level and structure differences for the BAB tests…

This study investigated the relationship between attitudes toward mathematics, career interests, and parent variables measured at grade eight and attitudes toward mathematics and career interests as measured at grade twelve. The longitudinal nature of the study will help to determine changes in mathematics attitudes and career interests from the…

The goals of this study were to trace the development of students' desire to participate in mathematics or to avoid it whenever possible, and to examine closely differences between boys and girls in reasons for enrollment or avoidance. To trace this decision-making process, information was collected from nearly 2,000 students. In the 1976-77…

The curriculum materials for high school students presented in the guide have been classroom developed and tested; they are the result of a project to establish a comprehensive career education program in the Peshastin-Dryden School System, Cashmere, Washington. An introduction discusses program goals, and is supplemented by the National Standard…

Based on comparative data from two 1973 studies, this study examined whether or not the occupational and educational status projections and language usage patterns of Mexican American teenagers living in a large metropolitan area differed from those of teenagers living in isolated, relatively small nonmetropolitan places. The two separate, but…

This teacher's guide to unit one of the first-semester "Comparing Political Experiences" course provides teaching instructions to meet the unit objectives. After an introductory review of the general objectives, the guide outlines specific instructional objectives and procedures for each of the 18 activities described in the 12th-grade…

This teacher's guide to unit 2 of the 12th-grade first-semester "Comparing Political Experiences" course provides teaching instructions to meet the unit's objectives. After an introductory review of the four main course objectives and 13 specific objectives, the guide outlines instructional objectives and procedures for each of the 18…