The Literature Project is a literature-based reading program designed to meet the needs of adolescent females with behavioral/emotional disorders, adolescent female offenders, and adolescent females at risk. The project uses novels and short stories written by and for women as basic reading material. Literary selections with heroines who are…

The first mail reinterview ever conducted by the Census Bureau was conducted as part of the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) of 1991. Because there were some questions about the reliability of items from the 1988 SASS reinterview, the 1991 study was examined by a mail reinterview. The methodology and responses are discussed, and response…

This study is based on data from a state-wide assessment that included both multiple-choice and constructed-response items. The intent of the study was to see whether item types make a difference in gender results. The items on both tests were categorized according to whether they assessed procedural knowledge, concepts, problem solving, or…

A study examined how a teacher accommodated diversity in a fifth-grade classroom in an inner-city school during a 2-year project involving literature-based reading instruction with small student-led response groups called Book Clubs. The Book Club project operated in the classroom using the four components of literacy instruction--reading,…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) focuses on providing information on what demographic subgroups of America's students know and can do. Because the NAEP does not report for individual students, it could be classified by some students as a low-risk test. Consequently, some students may lack proper motivation for giving their…

The cognitive structure of an algebra test was defined and validated using the linear test model (LLTM) and quadratic assignment (QA) techniques. The LLTM is an extension of the Rasch model with a linear constraint that describes item difficulty in terms of the cognitive operations required to solve the item. The model permits the specification of…

A cross-curricular comparison focused on learner interpretations of beginning reading and writing instruction in skills-based and whole language inner-city classrooms across kindergarten and first grade. Subjects, 48 low socioeconomic-status students in four classrooms in two midwestern cities, were observed during literacy instruction twice…

The impact of test item multidimensionality was examined as it affected fitting items on a teacher licensure test to an item response theory (IRT) model. Test item data from the 1990 study of G. W. Guiton and G. Delandshere are used. The Connecticut Elementary Certification Test (CONNECT) is a licensure examination designed to assess the subject…

Originally developed for the Department of Defense Schools (DoDDS) system, this learning package on reader response theory and related instructional strategies is designed for teachers who wish to upgrade or expand their teaching skills on their own. The package includes a comprehensive search of the ERIC database; a lecture giving an overview on…

This packet contains 10 selected papers on writing centers in both secondary and post-secondary settings: "Keynote Address: Collaboration, Control, and the Idea of a Writing Center" (Andrea A. Lunsford); "Diversifying for Disabilities: Making Writing a Mode of Encouragement" (Laurie Bertamus); "When Cultures Collide: The…

To broaden and extend the Mt. Druitt Early Childhood Project, a study was made of variables that research suggested were associated with classroom disruption in the primary school. Disruptive incidents in the classroom were construed as sequences of behaviors involving one or more students and the teacher in which class order breaks down and the…

An executive summary is presented of the study on school programs for Alberta natives (Metis, status and non-status Indians) sponsored by the Curriculum Policies Committee, which advises the Alberta Minister of Education on matters relating to the curricula used in provincial schools. The summary briefly describes the study's terms of reference,…

This is the report of a task force formed to bring psychological understanding to bear on the various aspects of the development of nuclear arms and nuclear energy and the threat they pose to human physical, mental, and emotional health. The first of seven articles considers the sociopsychological aspects of the nuclear arms race. Other articles…

The past decade has been a productive era for classroom research. Recent investigations have yielded useful concepts for thinking about classrooms and about facilitating achievement. Research findings and concepts provide a way of considering classroom instruction, but they are not rules for classroom behavior. Some teachers believe (and behave…

Conceptualizing stress as an interaction of organizational or work characteristics (stress stimuli) and individual characteristics (stress resistance), this paper reports a study of teacher stress in 42 elementary school organizations and 45 secondary school organizations. Organizational stress is operationalized as the aggregate average response…