This dissertation investigates the ways in which experience with lexical tone influences the perception of musical melody, and how musical training influences the perception of lexical tone. The central theoretical basis for the study is a model of perceptual learning, Reverse Hierarchy Theory (Ahissar et al., 2009), in which cognitive processes…

Scope and Method of Study: This study focused on the development and use of the AT-SAT test battery and the Initial En Route Qualification training course for the selection, training, and evaluation of air traffic controller candidates. The Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to measure the linear relationship between the…

High stakes assessments conducted in the southwestern United States demonstrate that fewer than 50% of English language learners (ELLs) are achieving proficiency levels in reading fluency. The purpose of this study was to understand if reading interventions using the framework of Samuels's repeated reading (RR) strategy increased student…

Research indicated that educators must consider socio-ecological accommodations because not all students learn in cooperative groups. Students must be taught how to discover the process of learning and to apply knowledge to real life situations. Gurian and Ballew (2003) identified differences in the male and female brain and the differences in how…

This study focuses on the postsecondary choices of all SAT[R] takers in the high school graduation cohort of 2006, who graduated from 3,172 public high schools in 17 states where the preponderance of college-aspiring students take the SAT, rather than the ACT. The data set analyzed is constructed by merging the College Board's student-level SAT…

Background: Sentence construction and syntactic organization are known to be poor in children with specific language impairments (SLI), but little is known about the way in which children with SLI approach language tasks, and static standardized tests contribute little to the differentiation of skills within the population of children with…

Purpose: The purpose of this experiment was to determine if there is alternate forms reliability for paper- and computer-administered standardized vocabulary tests. Another purpose was to determine whether the behavioral ratings of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) would improve during the computer-administered testing sessions…

Purpose: In this study, the authors investigated sentence comprehension and spatial working memory abilities in a sample of internationally adopted, postinstitutionalized (PI) children. The authors compared the performance of these PI children with that of an age-matched group of children living with their birth families. They hypothesized that PI…

Globally, over the last two decades, attention to culturally responsive, multicultural approaches to teaching have largely been supplanted by standardized curricula and pedagogy that derive from neoliberal business models of school reform. In this essay, I discuss three factors that contribute to the marginalization of culturally responsive…

This study explored American high school and middle school science teachers' attitudes toward the use of standardized testing for accountability purposes, their justification for the attitudes they hold and the impact of standardized testing on their instructional and assessment practices. A total of 161 science teachers participated in the study.…

Back in 2008, it wasn't clear just where candidate Barack Obama's heart lay when it came to the big issues facing schools. Although Mr. Obama had been a community organizer, a law professor, and a state legislator, the junior U.S. senator from Illinois didn't have a long record on K-12 issues, and he rarely spoke about them in his presidential…

A review of education reform policies reveals a shift from an input guarantee approach aimed at providing funds to level the playing field for all students to an output guarantee approach based on the expectation of achieving standardized results regardless of inputs. The shift reflects a belief that where a child starts his or her cognitive,…

Curriculum-based measurement in reading (CBM-R) is a widely used measure for identifying students in need of reading intervention and monitoring their progress. Despite a large base of research supporting the efficacy of CBM-R as a measure of comprehension, critics maintain that CBM-R is little more than a measure of word reading. The current…

Language diversity in South Africa continues to problematise educational provision and the realisation of equitable educational opportunities for all learners in various ways. This article presents the findings of ongoing research which explores the effect of language in education policy on the L1 and L2 proficiency of Grade 7 learners in township…

Despite the importance of writing analytically in response to texts, there are few assessments measuring students' mastery of this skill. This manuscript describes the development of a response-to-text assessment (RTA) intended for use in research. In a subsequent validity investigation we examined whether the RTA distinguished among classrooms in…