Although effective and efficient assessment procedures are crucial to the success of organizational training programs, the tests used for both student and program evaluation are often developed by instructional designers (IDS) and subject matter experts (SMEs) with little formal training in test development. This paper summarizes the major…

This report presents the findings from a three-year study of two San Diego demonstration projects designed to increase unsubsidized employment and reduce welfare dependency and costs. One involved a job search requirement, while the other combined that requirement with a short-term work obligation. Overall, compared to the few earlier studies on…

This handbook was developed as a resource for individuals involved in the planning and implementation of evaluation activities related to programs for neglected or delinquent youths. The handbook is organized into eight sections. Section 1, Program Evaluation and Overview, discusses a wide range of evaluation purposes, ranging from accountability…

This report presents a description of the Virgina Beginning Teacher Assistance Program (BTAP), its background and rationale, development, major program assumptions, and major program activities. The Virginia BTAP has three major components: teacher assessment, teacher assistance, and program management. The development and implementation of each…

A study examined how teachers help students to write with greater precision. Subjects, 160 freshman students, wrote a single sentence describing a wordless Peanuts cartoon. They were asked to express specific semantic relationships (sequence/cotemporality, intention/instrument, and intention/enablement) between the actions in two contrasting…

This paper details the considerations involved in determining suitable video projection systems for displaying the Apple Macintosh's screen to large groups of people, both in classrooms with approximately 25 people, and in lecture halls with approximately 250. To project the Mac screen to groups in lecture halls, the Electrohome EDP-57 video…

More than 10,000 instructional software packages have been published for elementary and secondary schools--thousands in each discipline. Unfortunately, not all sources of courseware evaluations are equally reliable; therefore, it is important to determine that evaluations include: (1) critical appraisal of content accuracy; (2) in-depth…

The presentation outlined in this paper provides: (1) a brief account of the conception, initiation, and implementation of a bibliographic instruction program to serve all freshman students, and to serve such special populations as international and minority freshmen; (2) an outline of the general characteristics of each category of students, the…

A variety of demographic trends and futurists' expectations are examined for implications for the development of newer roles for educational psychologists. In the future, educational psychologists may be involved in functions dealing with maintenance of health, education of older populations, instruction of personnel to care for chronically ill…

A followup study of potential first year teachers studied undergraduates certified to teach by Washburn University's teacher preparation program. The study's purpose was to determine effective methods of evaluation for assessing the adequacy of the undergraduate teacher preparation programs. The study sought answers about: (1) adequacy of the…

An experimental program designed to test an inservice method for introducing the practical aspects of John Dewey's educational philosophy to teachers was received positively by 17 of the program's 20 volunteer participants. The program used a limited version of R.A. Gibboney's "Toward Intellectual Excellence: Some Things to Look for in…

A project investigated the use of instant photography for creating synthesis between image and language, between pictures and words and thus stimulating the right-brain learning of students. By 1983 over 1 million students (including the learning disabled and hearing impaired) across the United States and Canada had participated in the project,…

Language learning is a form of cultural learning, and cultural learning embraces language learning. The goal of cultural learning is a continuing search for understanding that bridges cultures. Language can be a bridge, a system that constructs reality as it communicates about reality. Education in the U.S. has tended to define culture as American…

The dynamic linear model or Kalman filtering model provides a useful methodology for predicting the past, present, and future states of a dynamic system, such as an object in motion or an economic or social indicator that is changing systematically with time. Recursive likelihood methods for adaptive Kalman filtering and smoothing are developed.…

Because teachers are asking for specific suggestions to help students apply comprehension skills and read content material, a mechanism that assists students in acquiring and applying specific comprehension skills as they read content texts is being investigated. The mechanism is called marginal gloss because learning activities are placed in the…