The scoring method that will be applied in the current 12th-grade science assessment project of the National Science Foundation and the Office of Educational Research and Assessment is described. The method, "graded mark-point" scoring, is modeled after procedures developed by P. Tamir for use in the performance exercises of the Israeli…

The teacher's role and his or her understanding of it in the learning situation is one variable that needs to be included in any discussion of educational intervention. Bereiter and Scardamalia's (1991) teaching models provide a matrix for organizing teachers' classroom practice. Briefly, each model can be understood as a different view on the…

Incorporating skills and procedures which students can use in many areas of the curriculum, this book, and accompanying "teacher's guide," provides interactive activities that are fun and that help students in grades 4 through 12 become critical viewers of television. The book provides homework activities that turn the normally wasted…

An approach to detecting differential item functioning using the Rasch model with equivalent-group cross-validation was investigated. College students taking the Dental Admission Test, were divided by gender (936 females and 1,537 males) into 2 different samples. Rasch analyses were performed on both samples. Data were recalibrated after…

This document summarizes the media's reaction to the release of the 1991 "National Education Goals Report: Building a Nation of Learners," and public response to the National Education Goals Panel's (NEGP's) call for specific feedback on its work. Results will be used by the NEGP to improve the format and content of future reports.…

This report reviews the development of the peer review process at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) and presents perceptions of the process after 1 year of implementation. The perceptions presented are from a survey of department heads and some faculty who had completed the peer review process. Responses included comments about the…

Intended to encourage teachers and students to take a fresh look at children's literature, this practical collection of ideas offers plot summaries and suggests teaching strategies for 57 notable children's books. Books in the collection were chosen "outstanding trade books" by a National Council of Teachers of English committee on trade…

This narrative is a construction of self as beginner, analysis of other as beginner, and a reformulation that attempts to combine and make mobile and immutable knowledge about beginning and beginners. Data were collected from: (1) 48 students in a beginning teacher education course who kept journals of their experiences; (2) student teachers'…

This study introduces procedures for constructing a proficiency scale for a large-scale test by applying Tatsuoka's Rule Space Model. The SAT Mathematics (SAT M) Section 2 is used for illustrating the process and the results. A task analysis is summarized in a mapping sentence, and then 14 processes and content attributes are identified for…

Combining the theoretical with the practical, this book discusses what whole language is and how it can be used in the high school and college classroom. The book suggests that whole language is not grade specific, but rather a philosophy that can help teachers at any level formulate a perspective about teaching and learning based on current…

Composition classes at East Georgia College, a two-year college in the University System of Georgia, use some literature and literary discussions without compromising the "integrity" of the composition course. Cultural backgrounds of students are similar--most come from non-reading homes, and some say they have never read a whole book.…

Responses to previously calibrated items administered in a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) mode may be used to recalibrate the items. This live-data simulation study investigated the possibility, and limitations, of on-line adaptive recalibration of precalibrated items. Responses to items of a Rasch-based paper-and-pencil licensure examination…

Current knowledge about adolescent development (drawing primarily from developmental pediatrics and psychology) is reviewed to determine whether research and theory can help deepen understanding of why high school continues to be an alienating experience for large numbers of students, and this question is examined through responses of high school…

Passages used in the Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) reading test are intact pieces of literature, stories, and essays that match classroom reading assignments and typical student reading experiences. There are 15 testlets, each containing 5 items, associated with each passage. Each testlet requires students to demonstrate various levels…

This paper discusses how concepts and procedural skills in problem-solving tasks, as well as affects and emotions, can be subjected to meaningful measurement (MM), based on a multisource model of learning and a constructivist information-processing theory of knowing. MM refers to the quantitative measurement of conceptual and procedural knowledge…