If schools improved the academic performance of at-risk students beginning in the early years and continuing through the elementary grades, this improvement would have multiple positive effects on student dropout, delinquency, pregnancy, substance abuse, and other behaviors. Early improvement of poor academic performance could greatly alleviate…

School choice is advocated on the theory that deregulation and greater market control can restructure and improve education. While certain market strategies of improvement are worth exploring, complex production functions, unclear goals, and the political role of education in society limit the extent to which education can be understood and…

Magnet schools have become increasingly popular as alternatives to traditional curriculum offerings and as tools to promote voluntary desegregation in urban school districts. Most evaluations of magnet schools have been concerned with monitoring objectives and compliance with regulations. Few reports assess the impact of magnet curricula on…

This article discusses the assessment of self-regulated learning processes as students acquire cognitive skills in specific academic domains. Domain-specific assessment is useful for understanding student learning and for planning instructional activities that help to promote it. Although much psychological research has used general measures of…

Locally developed occupational tests were administered to 16- and 17-year-olds in a government-sponsored vocational education program in the United Kingdom over a six-month period in 1984. Job skills were tested in two occupational areas: use of a micrometer and invoice completion. Some performance tests were designed by researchers and some by…

This paper analyzes mastery learning as an alternative to curriculum planning and discusses implementation of the strategy in a prekindergarten through eighth-grade school district in Red Bank, New Jersey. The paper briefly describes district schools and circumstances affecting the school board's decision to implement mastery learning; discusses…

This study presents a 5-year assessment of the State Compensatory Education program in the Dade County Public Schools (Florida) on the achievement of pupils, attitudes of pupils, instructional strategies, program focus, and cost effectiveness. This study is limted to a survey of program trends appearing in grades two through six. The sample…

These proceedings contain 17 papers presented at a seminar to identify and evaluate research studies conducted in the past with a view to providing guidance and ready reference for those who wish to conduct research in the future. A summary of recommendations appears first. Issues, researchable questions, and suggestions are made in three areas:…

This paper examines how various equating methods are affected by: (1) sampling error; (2) sample characteristics; and (3) characteristics of anchor test items. It reviews empirical studies that investigated the invariance of equating transformations, and it discusses empirical and simulation studies that focus on how the properties of anchor tests…

In 1981, when Chapter 1 replaced Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I and with the advent of the effective schools movement, the Hawaii state administrators of Chapter 1 made a long term commitment to program improvement, especially in the area of instruction and quality delivery of services to the target students. In this program…

The paper gives Dutch results and possible implications of three recently completed international evaluation studies. School subjects were mathematics and science at the grade levels 8 and 9 in more than 500 schools. Effect and efficiency of teaching and textbooks in different school types, opportunity to learn, and students' classroom…

This study was commissioned by the State of Iowa to identify the current status and applicability of performance-based teacher compensation plans. After a review of the literature to establish the current status of merit pay and to identify districts throughout the United States that are presently using performance-based compensation plans, a…

Through the Problem Solving and Reasoning Skills Cognitive Development Model for Severely Disadvantaged Puerto Rican College Students, the Ana G. Mendez Educational Foundation developed a model for cognitive skills development for disadvantaged, low-achieving Hispanics. The program incorporates cognitive skills into existing remedial courses in…

This bibliography, the fifth in the Urban Schools Bibliography series, provides urban school personnel, researchers, and policymakers with information on important issues, programs, and practices in urban education. Topics covered in the bibliography include equal education, school policy, school administration, curriculum, testing and evaluation,…

This report summarizes recent Cincinnati (Ohio) Public Schools efforts to develop systematic approaches to generating information for school and district administrators. The result of these efforts is a School-Based Information System (SIS) that provides the district's 57 elementary and 22 secondary schools with information in such areas as…