Fourteen program outlines of elective English curriculums, representing 13 school systems, are collected in one package to serve as a convenient resource for examples of elective programs in English--two junior high school programs and 12 senior high ones. For all of the programs, descriptions of the contents of individual courses, indicating…

National Assessment is a data gathering project designed to provide information, in ten subject areas, about knowledge, skills, understandings and attitudes of young people in this country, and to assess changes in these variables over time. The data is collected and reported at the item level. Each exercise was developed with emphasis on content…

Technical improvements, which may be made in the reliability and validity of tests through confidence scores, are discussed. However, studies indicate that subjects do not handle their confidence uniformly. (MS)

This paper illustrates how Homewood-Flossmoor High School, Illinois District 233 addressed the decline in its student achievement results and improved college readiness among its students. This sharp decline caused school officials to stop and reevaluate what they were doing. A review of the facts led to a clear conclusion: "Rigorous…

A study investigated the characteristics and behaviors of college students learning a third language. Four groups of students with backgrounds in Slavic second languages and enrolled in a variety of Slavic and non-Slavic third languages courses were studied using ethnographic techniques, including open-ended questionnaires, focus groups, classroom…

The resource materials in this package are designed for use by English language and job training instructors attempting to make their instruction more urgently and comprehensively employment-focused. They are arranged in topical sections, each with an introduction and brief description of how they may be used. Sections address these topics:…

The purpose of this essay is to explore both what is known and what needs to be learned about the information value of performance items "when they are used in large scale assessments." Within the context of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), there is substantial motivation for answering these questions. Over the…

Progressive format or sequencing of strategies in the conversation class is proposed as a solution to the problems of conversation grouping for foreign students. Structures and formats and sample activities are outlined for the six activity categories or strategies: restructuring, one-centered, unified group, dyad, small group, and large group.…

A culturally and economically diverse group of 361 urban seventh graders rated their perceptions for liking and difficulty of core academic subjects and their attributions for mathematics test performance. Results suggest that boys and girls are not significantly different in their perceptions and in their attributions for lack of success. (SLD)

Performance of 156 undergraduate and 48 graduate students on a self-adapted test (SFAT)--students choose the difficulty level of their test items--was compared with performance on a computer-adapted test (CAT). Those taking the SFAT obtained higher ability scores and reported lower posttest state anxiety than did CAT takers. (SLD)

Discusses the nature of support staff work in research libraries, changing authority structures, and the impact of technology on job responsibilities. A study considering work complexity, supervision, evaluation criteria, control and autonomy, and job satisfaction is reported. (17 references) (EA)

Two experiments examined the use of a number-line metaphor presented with interactive multimedia to help sixth graders with varying levels of mathematics achievement or spatial ability build connections between addition and subtraction of signed numbers and existing conceptual knowledge. Results indicated that use of multiple representations…

New information and communications technologies and research in cognitive science have led to new ways to think about and implement learning environments. Among these new approaches to instruction and new methods to support learning and performance is an interest in and emphasis on complex subject matter (e.g., complex and dynamic systems…

The cognitive processes students use in doing the 1996 science assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were studied using two booklets from the 1993 NAEP science field test. Blocks of items from these booklets, a hands-on task block and either a conceptual/problem solving block or a theme block, were administered to 16…

A study investigated the use of manipulatives-based mathematics tasks as an alternative method for assessing young Hispanic students with limited English proficiency. Students (n=45) from kindergarten and grades 2 and 3 were administered 14 manipulatives-based tasks. Each task was retested over a period of 2-3 weeks. Task performance was scored on…