This research summarizes differential item functioning (DIF) results for student produced response (SPR) items, a nonmultiple-choice mathematical item type in the Scholastic Aptitude Test I (SAT I). DIF data from 4 field trial pretest administrations (620 SPR items) and 10 final forms (100 SPR items with samples ranging from about 58,000 to over…

The Texas/Montana Distance Learning Project was a summer (1992) pilot program administered by the Texas Education Agency in collaboration with the Montana Office of Public Instruction. Targeted participants were children of migratory workers who attended Texas schools, but were living temporarily in Montana during the early summer. The goals of…

This report evaluates the Portland Public Schools Title I preschool education program. Organized into four sections, the report provides comments and recommendations, a description of the program, a discussion of evaluation method and findings, and reports of a follow-up study of former program participants. The comments and recommendations…

During the summer of 1982, the Atlanta Public Schools sponsored four instructional television programs. The courses were designed to provide remedial instruction in reading and mathematics for target first, second, and ninth grade students. Questionnaires were administered to determine the success of the telecourses based upon the extent to which…

The 1990 Summer Academic Skills Achievement Program in Columbus (Ohio) provided 160 hours of instruction in reading comprehension and language mechanics skills needed for entry-level employment to 123 Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) clients. The program used a "whole language" approach to grammar and composition instruction and also…

A study examined the effectiveness of the current inservice training process used to teach newly employed nurses at Bess Kaiser Medical Center to transfer nursing process theory to practice. Eighty-two of 102 recently hired registered nurses were included in the audit sample. The newly hired nurses, whose previous experience varied from less than…

In this paper four classes of procedures for measuring the instructional sensitivity of reading comprehension test items are reviewed. True experimental designs are not recommended because some of the most important reading comprehension variables do not lend themselves to experimental manipulation. "Ex post facto" factorial designs are…

This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of a computer literacy program for 4-year-old Head Start students and their teachers that was developed through the efforts of the Indianapolis Head Start program, the Children's Museum, and the Indiana University School of Education. The report covers: (1) the objectives of the program; (2) a…

An evaluation was made of four Head Start bilingual/ multicultural curriculum models to assess their effectiveness and impact on children, staff, and parents. Intended as a pre-post design (with 90 children at each of eight Head Start replication sites and with treatment and control groups stratified on the basis of Spanish or English language…

The Program for Reading Success was designed to improve the reading skills for first through ninth graders identified as being in need of remediation. Funding was supplied by Title I and Impact Aid. The program served 1,320 students and employed 22 teachers. Teachers gave individualized and small group instruction based on an intensive diagnostic…

The purpose of this study was to compare and evaluate three online pretest item calibration/scaling methods in terms of item parameter recovery when the item responses to the pretest items in the pool would be sparse. The three methods considered were the marginal maximum likelihood estimate with one EM cycle (OEM) method, the marginal maximum…

Examined whether participating in the North Carolina Quality Enhancement Initiative improved the quality of 26 participating school-age child care programs. Found a significant increase in the quality of child care environments and teacher-child interaction over the 9-month period. State license and smaller group size related to higher quality…

The regression-discontinuity design involving a treatment interaction effect (TIE), pretest-posttest functional form specification, and choice of point-of-estimation of the TIE are examined. Formulas for controlling the magnitude of TIE in simulations can be used for simulating the randomized experimental case where estimation is not at the…

Describes two studies evaluating developmental reading instruction at Suffolk Community College, New York. One compared grade point averages (GPAs) for developmental reading students and two naturally occurring comparison groups. The other used pre- and posttest scores on the College Board's Computerized Placement Tests to document developmental…

Discusses outcomes focused assessments of library research instruction using pretests and posttests, attitude and usage surveys, and focus groups at The Citadel library. Suggests that assessment results influence library instruction content, staffing, collection development, and collaboration with other faculty and academic departments.…