Measurement invariance is crucial for making valid comparisons across different groups (Kline, 2016; Vandenberg, 2002). To address the challenges associated with invariance testing such as large sample size requirements, the complexity of the model, etc., applied researchers have incorporated parcels. Parcels have been shown to alleviate skewness,…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a continuing and nationally representative assessment of what this nation's students know and can do. NAEP has often been called the "gold standard" of assessments because it is developed using the best thinking of assessment and content specialists, education experts, and…

This technical report and user's guide is designed to provide researchers with an overview of the design and implementation of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), as well as with information on how to access the PISA 2009 data. This information is meant to supplement that presented in Organization for Economic Cooperation…

This report examines a Massachusetts pilot program for quarterly benchmark exams in middle-school mathematics, finding that program schools do not show greater gains in student achievement after a year. But that finding might reflect limited data rather than ineffective benchmark assessments. Benchmark assessments are used in many districts…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandated statewide accountability testing and focused the accountability conversation on reading. Therefore, the current study examined the relationship between curriculum-based measurement for reading (R-CBM) and state accountability test scores, potential grade differences in relationship magnitude, and…

This field experiment begins to build a theoretical framework for exploring the effects of media characteristics on subjects' understanding and integration of information. Students in two eighth-grade science classes wrote term papers with one class using a print encyclopedia and the other an electronic encyclopedia to conduct their research. A…

This field study examined learning effects attributable to instructional design characteristics when eighth-grade science students used a print encyclopedia or a videotex version of the encyclopedia to write term papers. Results suggest that specific effects of instructional design characteristics of a delivery system are of a limited nature. (MBR)

Belize's Relevant Education for Agriculture and Production (REAP) national primary school program is described in data from seven annual formative evaluations (1979-1985). The 1984-85 program/school evaluation included 54 rural REAP schools and utilized a 43-item questionnaire containing eight quality sub-variables. The quality of REAP schools…

A comparison of seventh and eighth graders' behaviors and achievement in K-8 and junior high schools shows K-8 students performing more favorably in all areas. Students in nine K-8 schools and nine junior high schools in the City School District of New York City were compared on reading achievement, attitude toward school, students' self-esteem,…

Some ninth-grade students from three Knoxville City high schools have continuously performed substantially less well than those from other city schools in the Tennessee State proficiency tests. A task force developed a plan to work with grade 8 in the middle schools and grade 9 in the high schools to prepare students to perform better on state…

Compares models of the classroom dynamics for a traditional laboratory setting and a problem-solving-centered environment, both at the eighth grade science level. Descriptive data indicate no differences in the models, whereas path analyses suggest that, in the problem-solving model, student behaviors significantly correlate to lesson structure,…

An explanation of why Asian American students perform better than others in school may lie in the nature of the learning programs they receive at home. The purpose of this paper is to define such programs that account for most of the differences in academic achievement among racial/ethnic groups. Data were used from the National Education…

Examines relationships between student interests and aptitude in selected academic fields and their success in intensive courses on these subjects. Discusses a two-year study of 33 mathematics students and 32 literature students in the eighth and ninth grades in the Soviet Union. Shows that differentiated, intensive study did not strengthen…

The paper summarizes a National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report, "Reading, Science and Mathematic Trends: A Closer Look," in which achievement trends are compared in several subjects for 4th, 8th, and 11th grade black students, white students, low achievers, and high achievers. Findings indicate that while overall…

The impact of school racial context (percentage of Anglo students in school and degree of Anglo peer group integration) and student background characteristics (sex, race, educational attainment of father of school racial context differed for Blacks intentions was addressed. A random subsample of Anglo (1,367), Black (1,172), and Hispanic (430)…