Mastery of fundamental movement skills (FMS) is an important factor in preventing weight gain and increasing physical activity. To master FMS, performance evaluation is necessary. In this study, we investigated the reliability of a new observational assessment tool. In Phase I, 110 video clips of children performing five locomotor, and six…

Pennsylvania's deep cuts in funding to K-12 education since 2010-11 have drawn a great deal of attention in recent months. Less widely recognized is the fact that Pennsylvania enacted even deeper cuts, on a percentage basis, to funding for public higher education in the same period. Four-year colleges received the largest reductions in funding,…

The Farm Financial Analysis Training (FFAT) course covers fundamental skills and concepts in liquidity, profitability, solvency, and efficiency. The research reported here identifies and measures the impacts of FFAT on participants including: 1) perceived gains in knowledge, 2) changes in management behavior, 3) changes in specific farm assets and…

The Test of Essential Learning and Literacy Skills (TELLS) has been administered to all Pennsylvania students in grades 3, 5, and 8 since 1985. An analysis of results from the 1,505 public elementary schools that served both third and fifth graders between 1986 and 1990 show that in 150 of these schools more than 50 percent of the students scored…

A random sample of 111 industry representatives from 4 standard metropolitan areas in Pennsylvania offered opinions on how to improve critical aspects of vocational education in the state. Employers gathered at one of four sites and dealt with questions regarding students' basic skills, technical job skills, and job attitudes. Group discussions…

A 6-month study examined the attitudes of older, low-literate adults toward using computers to learn to read and tried to determine the effectiveness of Penn State Adult Literacy Courseware for beginning readers with older, low-literate adults at a community-based senior center. The students were 10 black adults, aged 66 to 86 and educated at the…

On an optical scanning survey form listing 66 basic mathematics skills, all secondary vocational teachers in Pennsylvania were asked to identify mathematical skills essential to success and skills in need of remediation for their specialties. Of 4,839 forms sent out, data from 3,404 yielded the 122 tables (121 pages) of findings arranged according…

The rural work force has lower basic skills to supply labor for new jobs with higher literacy demands. At all levels of education the rural population is at a disadvantage compared with the urban population. One out of five rural adults in Pennsylvania has not continued education past the eighth grade. Among the costs to businesses from employee…

This report on trends in school improvement test results presents an analysis and synthesis of 1978-1984 student performance data from four state-mandated testing programs: (1) the Educational Quality Assessment Program in Pennsylvania; (2) the Minimum Basic Skills Program in New Jersey; (3) the Delaware Educational Assessment Program in Delaware;…

A survey of employers in Delaware, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania provided (1) information on organizational characteristics, employers' perception of the relative importance of nine previously identified successful transition skills, and their perception of the deficiency of these skills in today's employed youth; and (2) a model procedure…

Although it is difficult both to determine educational goals and to measure goal attainment, the Educational Quality Assessment Inventory (EQAI) has ambitiously tackled both problems. During a five-year period 45 separate instruments containing over 2000 items were constructed, revised, rejected, and accepted in preparation for the present…

The Secondary Form of the Educational Quality Assessment (EQA) Inventory is designed for 11th grade students in Commonwealth public schools. Test scales are designed to measure some facet of state quality assessment goals. Along with basic skills, the various instruments examine: (1) social and health habits, (2) feelings toward self and others,…

Lehigh County Community College (Pennsylvania) and the Lehigh County Senior Citizens' Center collaborated on a project to assess the learning needs of the senior center's 1,600 members. A needs assessment completed by 68 center members and interviews of an additional 38 center members established that senior citizens preferred short-term workshops…

A project was conducted in Pennsylvania to determine what changes might improve the effectiveness of the State's adult basic education (ABE) program. Northcutt's construct of functional competency adult performance level (APL) and Mezirow's program evaluation model provided the basis for the project's two components: APL assessment and program…

Adult Education Linkage Services undertook a project for the Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) to identify characteristics of programs and services available to adult learners who attend ABLE-funded programs in Pennsylvania. Results of a survey of 249 ABLE-funded programs identified 33 programs serving one or more of 6 special…