Analyzes data from the National Assessment of Economic Education Survey using data envelopment analysis. Determines whether high school economics classes in the Developmental Economic Education Program (DEEP) produce higher achievement levels than non-DEEP classes. Calculates technical efficiency of DEEP and non-DEEP classes. Reports results…

Examines characteristics of Scottish parents who exercised choice two years after the British government's 1980 school choice legislation became operational. Parents exercising choice were more highly educated and had more prestigious occupations than nonchoosing parents. Choosers selected schools with higher mean socioeconomic status and higher…

Because most states incorporate similar clinical tests in their dental licensing examinations and most dentists surveyed would like greater mobility between states without taking another clinical examination, development of a national clinical examination is desirable. Demonstration of continued competency should also be required. (MSE)

Views President Bush's America 2000 plan as a rhetorical masterpiece with minimal public input and maximum government interference. Examines program recommendations regarding teacher improvement, choice, the New American Schools Development Corporation, and national testing. Discusses three omitted topics: school finance, growing youth poverty,…

Current proclamations to reform schools with national examinations related to a national curriculum are a reflection of ignorance and destined to fail. We need to address educational improvement with seriousness and complexity and reconsider workplace structure, curriculum character, teaching practices, and the forms used to appraise our quality…

Discusses the results of the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) of secondary school students on probability and statistics. The most recent results indicate that more attention is being given to data analysis, statistics, and probability, and that student performance on these items is gradually improving compared to the 1990…

The sweeping No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation seeks to impact U.S. education on a broad scale through provisions and mandates that target both resources and student outcomes. One NCLB mandate is to provide every student with a "highly qualified teacher." The mandate arises from growing evidence of the relationship between teacher…

This article reports on the reading comprehension crisis of older students in the middle and high school grades in our nation. Its goal is to establish a common foundation for intervention by educators and clinicians alike, by providing a brief description of the state of the field in comprehension theory. In particular, the Kintsch…

The NCTM's Research Committee has prepared this article as a means to raise the awareness about equity and issues surrounding equity from a research perspective as well as to support the NCTM's commitment to the Equity Principle. The committee discusses the concept of equity from three perspectives: as a subject of research, as a "critical lens"…

Narrative theories of personality help elucidate the complexity of success. (Contains 1 figure.)

This article is a detailed response to the issues raised by the Post-14 Mathematics Inquiry in the UK. It aims to debate some of the central issues in mathematics teaching in the UK, including recruitment and retention of mathematics teachers, the curriculum content, national assessment, teaching resources (including ICT) and national strategies…

The validity of TOEIC Bridge™ scores as a measure of English language skill was examined from the standpoint of a unified concept of test validity. In this study, more than 6,000 test takers in 3 Latin American countries (Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador) took 1 form of the TOEIC Bridge test, and their scores were compared to additional information…

This article recounts the battle in the "math wars" that took place in Massachusetts, United States in 1999-2000 over the scope, content and teaching of the state's K-12 mathematics curriculum. Harsh controversies arose between the partisans of a "reform-math" movement stressing an undefined "conceptual understanding"…

Because of student characteristics in the middle years, several types of assessment are needed. The national monitoring system being developed by the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) may prove a useful assessment framework for individual schools, providing developmental data for program comparisons and student movement between schools. (SJL)

National Assessment of Educational Progress reading data were scaled using a unidimensional item response theory model. Bock's full-information factor analysis and Rosenbaum's test of unidimensionality were applied. Conclusions about unidimensionality for balanced incomplete block spiralled data were the same as for complete data. (Author/GDC)