This study examined background factors in children that influence teachers' ratings on the Classroom Adjustment Rating Scale (CARS). Sixteen classrooms in five schools were selected to include a range of socio-economic and cultural groupings from Inner London, England Primary Schools. Teachers used the CARS and an additional short scale of overall…

Beginning elementary teachers (n=124) randomly selected from a pool of recent graduates and interns at a California State University campus completed the Teacher Concern Survey at the beginning and the end of their first year of teaching. The Teacher Concern Survey identifies three stages of concerns: (1) self--themselves and their own survival;…

Since studies conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) have had a dramatic impact on the way in which officials in the United States and the American public think about the performance of our students, it is essential that IEA surveys accurately measure real differences in student performance…

Based on research findings and practical experience, this booklet presents 10 interrelated ideas to transform instruction in reading and heighten literacy learning for all students. The booklet notes that research has led to new understandings about basic cognitive and instructional processes (particularly those involved in reading comprehension).…

In the form of a teaching case, this paper recounts the difficulties of an English teacher whose reading list was challenged as being racist. In introductory materials, the paper explains that teaching cases help develop students' abilities to spot issues and frame problems in an ambiguous, complex teaching situation. The paper presents the case…

The Communication Theory and Methodology section of the Proceedings contains the following 20 papers: "Information Sufficiency and Risk Communication" (Robert J. Griffin, Kurt Neuwirth, and Sharon Dunwoody); "The Therapeutic Application of Television: An Experimental Study" (Charles Kingsley); "A Path Model Examining the…

This study explores methods for detecting gender-based differential item functioning (DIF) on the 12th grade multiple-choice and constructed-response science tests administered as part of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). Several combinations of conditioning variables were explored for DIF detection on both tests, and…

The effectiveness of two five-point Likert response scales with different verbal anchors was compared. Four anonymous written questionnaires addressing characteristics of effective schools were developed. Each questionnaire was prepared in two formats, one with each response scale. The 4 questionnaires were composed of between 140 and 200 items. A…

This paper presents results of a survey that focused upon responses from college faculty (N=33) and community professionals (N=56) in the following areas: the goals of higher education; success factors of higher education; attitudes and values held about higher education; gender discrimination in higher education; and perceived social status of…

This paper describes a study of the socioemotional functioning of middle-class male and female preschoolers who had experienced varying degrees of nonparental care during the infant/toddler period. A review of the literature revealed that previous research findings from child care programs were inconclusive about potential differential effects on…

A scaling procedure is proposed, based on item response theory (IRT), to fit non-hierarchical test structure as well. The binary scores of a test of English were used for calculating the probabilities of answering each item correctly. The probability matrix was factor analyzed, and the difficulty intervals or estimates corresponding to the factors…

The sources of multidimensionality found in several different forms of a licensure examination were studied. The relationship between one source of multidimensionality, differential item functioning (DIF) (or factors producing DIF), and content characteristics was explored in an attempt to isolate aspects of training or curriculum that could…

This "hybrid" textbook (part anthology, part activities, part discursive text) introduces methods students to important topics in English education. The book introduces students to a process approach to writing, a reader-response approach to literature, and a sociolinguistic approach to language. Each chapter in the book features: an…

The autobiography "I, Rigoberta Menchu" is a complicated text--the conditions of its production, the complexity of its subject matter, and the wide range of possible responses among North American readers create challenges for composition students and instructors. A week of taped interviews with Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan Indian…

A study examined whether dramatization exercises generated more interpretive and evaluative thought among students regarding theme and characterization within a short story than traditional methods of answering questions or writing an essay regarding the story. Subjects, 35 junior English students at a suburban southern California high school,…