The Japanese high school entrance examinations were examined in detail for social studies, mathematics, and science test items. Most items measured knowledge and comprehension rather than synthesis, analysis, or scientific thinking. Implications for middle school instruction were discussed. (GDC)

Nine indices of response pattern appropriateness were compared, based on item response theory, with respect to their relation to the total test score and their effectiveness in detecting unusual response patterns. The ability to differentiate between three groups was compared: cooperative examinees, uncooperative examinees, and randomly generated…

A shortened Study Attitudes and Methods Survey (SAMS) was administered to 181 community college students. Four original factors remained in the new version: academic interest--love of learning; study anxiety; manipulation; and alienation toward authority. Academic drive--conformity and study methods were dropped, while facilitative study behaviors…

Reading ability of fourth- and eighth-grade Hungarians was assessed as part of the national CTD-80 (Curriculum Theory Department) survey. The texts used in the reading tests are analyzed, as are the reading tasks involved. Resulting achievement test results are presented and described in terms of the text characteristics. (GDC)

An experiment investigated the extent to which the results of out-of-level testing may be biased because the child given an out of level test may have had a significantly different curriculum than the children given in-level tests. Item analysis data suggested this was unlikely. (CTM)

This study examines cultural bias in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Results indicated no evidence of specific factors peculiar to Blacks v Whites, and rank order of item difficulties was similar in both groups. Race differences were due to differences in mental maturity rather than to test bias. (Author/RD)

Attempts to answer the question whether indentifiably separate levels of reading comprehension exist by judgmentally using 9 teachers at the University of Lancaster and empirically using 100 students from Bombay university. (Author/VWL)

The impact of overall test length and difficulty on the expert judgments of item performance by the Nedelsky method were studied. Five university-level instructors predicting the performance of minimally competent candidates on a mathematics examination were fairly consistent in their assessments regardless of length or difficulty of the test.…

The effects of number of score groups and inclusion/exclusion of the studied item were examined in an empirical evaluation of the Mantel-Haenszel technique (MHT), using 3,795 elementary school students who took the SRA vocabulary test. Inclusion of four or more score groups yielded stable alpha estimates with the MHT. (SLD)

The Mantel-Haenszel approach for investigating differential item functioning (DIF) was applied to United States history items within the 1986 National Assessment of Educational Progress administered to 7,812 11th graders. DIF analyses were based on responses of 7,743 11th graders. Results concerning sex and racial differences and ethnicity are…

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (a) to explore the nature of elementary school children's metacognitive knowledge of strategies appropriate for before, during, and after reading; and (b) to determine whether children who had participated in Reading Recovery instruction in the first grade had similar understandings as their current third-…

In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act. In addition to providing additional funding for schools and encouraging local autonomy, the new law focuses on accountability in an attempt to close the achievement gap for all students, leaving no child behind. Perhaps the most striking manifestation of Bush's new law is the…

This paper outlines the main findings of research about online portfolio information systems. This research focused on the educational integrity of these educational systems and the maximisation of value across all stakeholders, in particular the value gained from the automation and interaction potential of the online environment. The findings and…

In a recently published research article in this journal, Avramidis & Skidmore (2004) argued that it is time we placed issues of disability provision more in the context of provision for the generic student. They presented a study based on the Learning for All Questionnaire (LfAQ), which investigated certain implied issues. Findings indicated…

A research project used critical incident technique to investigate the expertise of staff development leaders in higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. Problems inherent in such analyses are considered and the methodology briefly outlined. Interviewees' conceptions of their professional learning and the basis of their expertise are…