Algebra is an area of pressing national concern around issues of equity and access in education. Recent theories and research suggest that personalization of instruction can allow students to activate their funds of knowledge and can elicit interest in the content to be learned. This paper examines the results of a large-scale teaching experiment…

This paper describes a secondary analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scores by gender. Data were national public 4th- and 8th-grade reading scores from composite and subscales for 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2013. Twelfth-grade scores for composite and literary experience from 2005, 2009, and 2013 and gain…

PISA 2012 results indicate that school systems that group students based on ability levels tend to have lower performance than those that do not divide students by ability. One way some in the United States have sought to increase equity of opportunity is to mandate enrollment of students in college-preparatory mathematics, i.e., Algebra 1 in…

Educational assessment is a process of collecting evidence and interpreting it to provide instructors with information regarding students' learning. However, the current design and scoring of most standardized educational tests are insufficient to serve this purpose. The limitation exists primarily due to the lack of cognitive information…

The main objective of this study was to show whether eighth graders' performance on standardized mathematics tests could be predicted from a variety of variables. These predictors included gender, race, socioeconomic status, and previously earned grades in mathematics. Data came from the base year of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of…

The main objective of this study was to show whether eighth graders' performance on standardized mathematics tests could be predicted from a variety of variables. These predictors included the students' race/ethnicity, gender, attitudes toward mathematics, students' time spent on homework, whether parents helped with homework assignments,…

Autonomous Learning Behavior (ALB) as mediators between internal and external influences and performance on high level cognitive tasks was proposed as a possible explanation for gender-related differences in mathematics. This study developed a measure of ALB by drawing on teachers' working knowledge and the literature on problem-solving, including…

This study used community contextual variables to investigate adolescent academic achievement, examining school districts and individual schools with 8th grade students. The first analyses were conducted for school year 1997-98. The school district model was replicated for 1996-97. Data came from the Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau…

The development and use of item shells in the construction of a series of standardized tests of reading comprehension at the elementary school level are described. An item shell is an item that is devoid of specific content, but contains key words and a distinctive syntactic structure. The specific content of the item shell varies depending on the…

The purposes of this study were to compare student, school, and group average distributions of two standardized tests, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) and Stanford 7 Plus Achievement Test, and examine the American College Testing Programs college entrance examinations (Grades 11-12). In addition to the student-school norm comparisons, ratios…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) measures the educational achievement of nationally representative samples of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. Local educational agencies tend to view the NAEP as a benchmark to which the educational achievement of their students can be compared. In particular, state departments of education…

Students' attitudes and preparation practices regarding standardized tests were studied with students from one elementary school and two middle schools in Atlanta (Georgia). There were 111 fifth graders (35 African American and 76 European American) and 274 eighth graders (204 African American and 70 European American). Students completed a survey…

The proliferation of minimum competency testing in recent years has not resulted in a critical analysis of the construct validity of such tests. The present study examined the dimensionality and construct validity of an urban life skills competency test (the 1987 eighth-grade Chicago Minimum Proficiency Skills Test (MPST) via linear analysis. The…

A procedure is presented for examining the influence of instruction on responses to test items by extending item response theory to incorporate variables illustrating different amounts of opportunity to learn. Data from the Second International Mathematics Study (grade 8 scores for about 7,000 students) illustrate the discussion. (SLD)

Eighty-five fourth- and eighth-grade learning disabled students whose individualized education plans specified untimed achievement testing were tested with the Reading Comprehension subtest of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, either according to the publisher's 40-minute time limit or with an extended time limit of 2 hours, 30 minutes. Results were…