Effective schools should be superior in both enhancing students' achievement levels and reducing the gap between high- and low-achieving students in the school. However, the focus has been placed mainly on schools' achievement levels in most school effect studies. In this article, we attend to the school-specific achievement dispersion as well as…

This article describes the main findings of a follow-up survey of assessment and intervention models (current frameworks and future aspirations) used by Scottish Psychological Services that offer placements to Educational Psychologists in Training from the Dundee MSc in Educational Psychology from 1996-2005. This survey led to a study where…

The advantages and disadvantages of two common grading methods are presented, and from an analysis of the virtues and vices of these prototypic methods, a set of goals or criteria for grading systems is derived. Percentage and class-curve grading systems are discussed in detail. Criteria for grading systems include the following: obtain relevant…

The 1983 annual report of Washington's statewide test of fourth grade basic skills achievement is presented in this document. Both state level and district-by-district results are reviewed. The first section of this report presents the overall results for the 48,000 fourth grade students who were administered the basic battery of the California…

This testimony presented before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and Humanities presents an expert's conclusions about the status of reading in the United States. It points to several studies comparing reading achievement scores of students today to scores of students of several years ago; discusses data that are used to…

This study finds that the chief existing teacher evaluation methods (measuring teacher characteristics, student achievement test scores, and teacher performance rating scales) are subjective, open to bias, closed to public scrutiny, and based on irrelevancies. The study advocates evaluation procedures that are performance-based and empirically…

This report on the 1977 mathematics assessment of British Columbian students in grades 4, 8, and 12 describes the item specification model; test administration procedures; results for each grade level; and overall results correlated to sex, mother tongue, and parental level of schooling. (SJL)

This report reviews 75 high schools in the "High Schools that Work" (HSTW) network that made statistically significant gains in at least two of three areas reading, mathematics and science--between 2002 and 2004 on the "HSTW" Assessments. In these schools, all groups of students improved achievement--regardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic…

Recent research by Coleman, Hoffer, and Kilgore on the effectiveness of public and private schools may be seriously flawed because of its neglect of input-level differences in student performance and its reliance on cross-sectional testing data as the criterion measure. The sample used by Coleman and his colleagues from the High School and Beyond…

This study evaluates a subjective performance-evaluation regime in place in the English public school system since the early 1990s. Under this regime, independent inspectors visit schools, assess schools' performance, and disclose their findings on the Internet. Inspectors combine hard metrics, such as test scores, with softer ones, such as…

The method presented is a means of determining the communality of the content of two or more texts in the same knowledge domain. The discipline studied was physics. Undergraduate curricula at 59 colleges were studied to determine consensus among the textbooks with respect to general program requirements and specific course offerings. Chapter…

The use of three remedies for errors in the measurement of ability that arise from differences in rater stringency is discussed. Models contrasted are: (1) Conventional; (2) Handicap; and (3) deterministic Rater Response Theory (RRT). General model requirements, power, bias of measures, computing cost, and complexity are contrasted. Contrasts are…

A study was conducted to determine whether the spellinq achievement and school attitudes of third grade students from the middle socio-economic level could be accelerated relative to a control group with the SALT method, Lozanov's Suggestive-Accelerative Learning and Teaching. Spelling test words for pre- and post-testing were drawn from the…

The Administrative Grid and the Organizational Climate Survey (OCS) are evaluated in this report for their usefulness in assessing performance of practicing administrators. The Administrative Grid allows the plotting of scores measuring people and task orientation according to effectiveness (the accomplishment of recognized objectives of…

The Bureau of Research and Assessment developed a two-staged approach for assessing speaking skills. All students were to be initially rated by two of their current classroom teachers- (teacher observations). A limited number of students would be assessed by a rater in a focused measure of student performance (one-on-one ratings). The purpose of…