The purpose of this study was to express in procedural terms one approach in the development of a technique to discover the rating strategies of essay graders. Sets of rater scores obtained from a reading of 256 high school essays by 32 experienced English teachers were submitted to a factor analysis which yielded four meaningful rater clusters.…

Every human being is always open to some degree; for example, open for learning, experience, change, improvement, or further degradation by his own standards or those of others. Every experience alters an individual's learning capacity. Therefore, to say a child is naturally of high or low intelligence with unlimited or limited learning power is…

This comparison of correction of written papers by peers with traditional correction by teachers in composition courses tested the hypothesis that a statistically significant difference would exist in favor of a peer-graded group. The theoretical basis of study was the influence on adolescents of the opinions of their peers and the motivating…

After briefly reviewing the correspondence study method and procedures in general, an extensive and detailed survey is made of the correspondence study programs of 59 National University Extension Association member institutions which offer such programs, with a listing of all courses offered, application procedures; credit procedures, costs, and…

This curriculum guide describes a high school English program structured to meet the needs of the homeless boys of Boys Town, Nebraska. The program is individualized, designed to provide as much tutorial help as possible. The general goals of the program are to improve communication skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The guide…

This report focuses illustratively on two institutional concerns for which changes in the aptitude level of entering students may have implications-attrition and grading. Implications indicated that colleges, individually and collectively, need to develop systematic programs for monitoring the incidence and determining the etiology of attrition.…

Although intercultural-communication courses are increasing in universities in this country, very little interest in these courses is displayed on community college campuses. This paper presents and discusses procedures for community colleges to develop an effective course in intercultural communication. Consideration is given to the initial…

In an effort to resolve the small school problems of limited math offerings, small classes, scheduling, and teacher overload, a secondary teacher from Quemado, New Mexico (a rural area) initiated use of five different programmed mathematics courses in one class period. Objectives were to: increase math offerings; decrease scheduling problems;…

A program in beginning French is described in which an individualized approach to language teaching was used to achieve a high level of mastery and avoid grade bargaining by varying the time needed by students to achieve mastery. The same course structure was used to train language majors as teaching assistants. (Author/RM)

The concurrent criterion validity of a modified pass/fail grading system in a medical school was assessed. The investigators examined possible differences between honor society and nonhonor society students on three medical school entry variables and on medical board scores. (Author/JKS)

Results of two experiments at the University of South Florida indicate that as grading practices are made less demanding, students learn less. They also suggest the possibility that the use of student-faculty evaluations influence the grading practices of instructors. (LBH)

Grading patterns for over 1,000 teachers, giving more than 40,000 grades in approximately 2,000 courses, are reported and a method is introduced both to normalize and stabilize grade data by courses. The findings indicate that the academic field of the course is strongly related to the types of grades assigned, but that academic credentials and…

Describes grading and scoring procedures for advanced placement examinations in two Latin courses: Vergil and Cattalus-Horace. Explanations for cited test items are offered. (CB)

A British polytechnic's first experiences with having one segment of a major examination be known to students ahead of time is discussed, and an empirical comparison of this and the traditional test type is presented. (MSE)

Analyzes several questions and student answers, and the graders' evaluations of student responses on each of two advanced placement examinations--the one which tests Vergil and the one which tests Catallus and Horace. The percentages of participants scoring at each grade level of the exam are also presented. (SED)