How different evaluation formats affected test scores for different tracks of high school biology students was studied in an action research case study. For purposes of the study, "A" tracked students were generally college-bound; "B" tracked students were those who had no desire to attend college, especially those in vocational education, or who…

A study investigated how repetition was used in the telling of personal narratives to create emotional involvement on the part of listeners, to evaluate stories, to prevent listeners from asking questions and from losing the story's focus, and to justify narrating that particular story in a cross-cultural setting. It was assumed that narrators…

This study examined kindergarten teachers' perceptions regarding the change in schedule from an everyday, half-day program to an alternating day, full-day program. Subjects included 37 female teachers in a small midwestern city who had almost completed the first year of the changed schedule. Results from a mail survey revealed teacher concerns,…

This document offers many of the insights and comments of Maryland elementary school teachers who scored the 1992 Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) tests. The MSPAP covers reading, writing, social studies, mathematics, and science and is administered to students in grades 3, 5, and 8. The document contains the teachers' most…

This document offers many of the insights and comments of Maryland elementary school teachers who scored the 1993 Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) tests. The MSPAP covers reading, writing, social studies, mathematics, and science and is administered to Maryland students in grades 3, 5, and 8. Comments and observations are…

In 1992, eight two-year colleges in Northern California were chosen to participate in a quantitative study of the relationship between student outcomes and the use of instructional methods recommended in the Cross/Angelo Classroom Assessment Model. The model supports the modification of instruction based on frequent, quick, and anonymous written…

Tools used in scaling proficiency scores from the Second International Assessment of Educational Progress (IAEP) are described. The second IAEP study, conducted in 1991, was an international comparative study of the mathematics and science skills of samples of 9- and 13-year-old students from 20 countries. This paper focuses on part of the second…

Papers from a conference on empirical research on foreign language instruction in Europe and the United States include: "Foreign Language Instruction and Second Language Acquisition Research in the United States" (Charles A. Fergurson, Thom Huebner); "Empirical Foreign Language Research in Europe" (Theo van Els, Kees de Bot,…

The 1993 Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) Reading Tests measured reading comprehension using both narrative and expository reading passages. Noticeable differences in mean scaled scores occurred depending on whether the 1993 results were equated back to the 1992 narrative test or the 1993 expository test (Hsu and Ackerman, 1994). In an…

This document expands upon the discussion of standardized tests in federal legislation and Department of Education rules and regulations, in order to guide practitioners in using these tests and alternative assessment methods more wisely. Amendments of 1988 that address the uses of standardized tests, the federal regulations that implement the…

Peter Elbow's concepts of "pointing,""summarizing,""telling," and "showing" can form an effective method for training students to give reader-based feedback to peer writing. In pointing, students jot down all the words and phrases they can remember from an oral reading of a draft. These lists stimulate…

Providing guidance and support is the subject of this document, one of 9 modules in an 11-unit resource pack designed to help trainers and postsecondary and continuing education staff meet the needs of special needs students in Great Britain. Having completed the module, staff should be able to: (1) define what is meant by guidance and support;…

The relationship between item omission and item position on criterion-referenced tests in the Texas state assessment program is examined. Item statistics from the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) and Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS) mathematics and reading tests from 1983 through 1985 are examined for three ethnic…

This second of four volumes on the history of compulsory education among the nations of Europe and the western hemisphere covers schools, pupils, teachers, programs, and methods. Of the volume's 16 selections, 13 are written in English and 3 are written in Italian. Most selections contain summaries; summaries of the Italian articles are written in…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 38 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) how writing centers succeed and fail; (2) the effects of scoring method, topic, and mode on grade 12 students' writing scores; (3) analysis of the peer…