The purpose of the present investigation was to analyze the measures used in a New Jersey Public School district for the assessment of giftedness among male and female Intermediate and Middle School children. In addition to gender, special education classification status was also evaluated as a variable. Educational data of 89 male and 60 female…

A study determined which approach for vocabulary development, context or definition, would yield the best results on a teacher-made content area vocabulary test. Two random samples (for a total of 45 students) of fourth graders from a central New Jersey elementary school were formed. One sample was taught 50 social studies vocabulary words using…

A study examined the effect of computer-assested instruction on fourth graders' writing skills. Two fourth grade classes from one elementary school in New Jersey participated in the study. One class (the experimental sample) was taught to use the computer as a writing tool, while the other class (the control sample) used only pencil and paper.…

Recent third-person perception articles suggest that optimistic bias is the mechanism underlying the perceptual bias, but fail to empirically test the assumption. Minority "at-risk" youth are neglected in both literatures, despite the fact that they are frequently the target audience for the resulting campaigns. This study sought to…

In 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) included a Trial State Assessment (TSA); for the first time in NAEP's history, voluntary state-by-state assessments were made. In 1994, TSA was expanded to include non-public school students. The 1994 reading assessment considered students' proficiency in situations that involved…

A study determined if regular listening to oral reading by the teacher affected fourth-grade students' level of comprehension. Subjects were 47 students from an elementary school in central New Jersey. Twenty-five students were read to for 30 minutes daily for 8 weeks in addition to their regular classroom reading instruction. The remaining 22…

A study examined the effect of geographic mobility on elementary school students' achievement. Although such mobility, which requires students to make multiple moves among schools, can have a negative impact on academic achievement, the hypothesis for the study was that it was not a determining factor in reading achievement test scores. Subjects…

In 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) included a Trial State Assessment (TSA); for the first time in NAEP's history, voluntary state-by-state assessments were made. In 1992, the NAEP Program included an expanded TSA in fourth-grade reading. The 1992 reading assessment considered students' performance in situations that…

A study was conducted to show that there would be no difference between two samples' abilities to complete a hands-on science project when one is provided with advance organizers and the other is not. The sample of students were second, third, and fourth graders from the science program in Piscataway Township Schools in New Jersey. The…

A study examined retelling as a reading comprehension-enhancing technique. Subjects were 26 urban, lower socio-economic fourth graders from New Jersey (Essex County), including 10 girls and 16 boys. A control sample answered questions as a follow-up to reading basal stories; an experimental sample retold the stories as a follow-up. Comparable…

A study examined and explored the importance of language in successful math problem-solving. The participants of the study were 24 fourth-grade students in a public elementary school in an urban area. Students were instructed in solving math word problems with a variety of strategies ranging from task specific, procedural methods to…

Research supports that drama should be an integral part of the elementary and secondary curriculum. Utilizing drama strategies enriches learning in the reading program, the literature program, and the areas of oral language development, nonverbal communication, vocabulary development, listening skills, thinking skills, and creative writing. Yet,…

This report is the beginning of a series that will examine the performance of the school children of New Jersey relative to the performance of other children in the United States and worldwide. The measure of performance used was the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics examinations and their linked versions of the…