This document reports on Maryland's progress as of 1995 toward the eight National Education Goals. The document lists the National Education Goals; describes state progress made toward each goal; describes programs that address each goal; and presents statistics on enrollment, public school funding, teacher salaries, attendance, special programs,…

This document is a comparative report based on data that enables a different form of comparison to be made between Japanese and American eighth-graders. The data is drawn from assessments given in each country using tests developed via governmental agencies that were designed to mirror the basic curricula currently being offered to students in the…

The Performance Standards of the Oregon Certificate of Initial Mastery are described and discussed. Performance standards define how well students must perform on classroom and state assessments that lead to Oregon's Certificate of Initial Mastery. Students must complete classroom and state assessments that show what they know and can do in…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the use of technology and student computation and geometry achievement. The study also examined possible relationships between achievement differences related to demographic and background characteristics of the students and the use of technology. The sample of 956 students in…

This study focused on the relationship between high school students' course-taking patterns and their achievement of higher-order thinking skills. PLAN scores (in grade 10) and ACT Assessment scores (in grades 11 or 12) were collected for 73,818 students in 1,174 high schools. The findings show that, in a typical high school, eleventh- and…

This document, one of four volumes comprising the 1995 Goals Report, is the fifth in a series of annual reports. This core report for 1995 focuses on approximately two dozen indicators that show the progress made by the United States toward the National Education Goals. National performance has improved in five areas, gotten worse in seven, and,…

This booklet, one of a set of four documents comprising the 1995 Goal Report, contains the executive summary for the fifth in a series of annual reports to measure progress toward the National Education Goals. The first part summarizes the nation's progress toward each of the goals. It provides baseline measures of progress, the most recent…

To determine whether the range of ability within the classroom has a significant effect on students' performance in mathematics, and to identify the class compositional or instructional characteristics that contribute to differences between homogeneous and heterogeneous classes in terms of mathematics achievement, an analysis was conducted using…

The effects of previous mathematics, statistics, and computer science coursework; attitudes toward statistics and computers; and mathematics ability on statistics achievement were studied for 289 college students over 4 semesters. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine the effect of the computer laboratory component of an inferential…

A new testing strategy that provides protection against the problem of having examinees in adaptive testing choose difficulty levels that are not matched to their proficiency levels was introduced and evaluated. The method, termed restricted self-adapted testing (RSAT), still provides examinees with a degree of control over the difficulty levels…

This study assessed whether providing examinees with a choice between computerized adaptive testing (CAT) and self-adaptive testing (SAT) affects test performance in comparison with being assigned a CAT or SAT, and evaluated variables influencing examinee choice of either test form. The relative influences of test type and test choice on examinee…

This report describes the success of the LaHarpe (Illinois) Community Unit School District in raising student math scores on the Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP). Low IGAP test results and faculty dissatisfaction with scores precipitated the school district to modify the content and delivery of math instruction based on student needs…

Data from the Spring 1996 administration of the New Standards Mathematics Reference Examination for Middle Grades were used to examine the instructional validity of the Reference Examination, opportunity to learn, and equity in the context of the California Mathematics Renaissance program. Student (n=1,936) and teacher (n=105) responses to the…

Parents in affluent communities have been following the suggestion of research and delaying kindergarten entry of their young age-eligible children in order to increase the likelihood of the child's academic success. This study examined the correlation between the chronological age of a child entering kindergarten and his or her performance on…

Despite rising concerns about the mathematics and science achievement of U.S. students, a flood of evidence amassed over the past decade suggests that far too few students are receiving the high-quality education needed in these subjects either for careers or for basic citizenship. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)…