The purpose of this paper is to use data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to describe changes in performance within the subject area of social studies and citizenship education. The items from the citizenship and social studies national assessments illustrate that trends over time are not uniform within these subject areas. The…

The English language achievement of 213 Spanish speaking students in grades K-3, who receive English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction in the context of a bilingual program, is compared to that of 104 similar students who receive ESL instruction within the traditional school program, in order to probe whether enrollment in a bilingual program…

Level of high school mathematics achievement acts as a critical filter to eligibility for undergraduate admission of minorities, particularly blacks, and effectively limits their opportunities in the world of work. Level of high school mathematics achievement acts, also, as a critical filter in keeping women from free choice of an undergraduate…

A new standard setting method, Mapmark, was recently developed by ACT Inc. in the course of a contract with the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) to set achievement levels for the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Grade 12 mathematics. Mapmark includes elements of the bookmark method (Lewis, Mitzel, & Green, 1996;…

This study compares the academic preparation of American Indian, Black, and Hispanic American students with that of White students in the Omaha (Nebraska) Public Schools (OPS). The following measures were examined: (1) racial composition, indicating the school's social and academic atmosphere; (2) student-teacher ratios, indicating educational…

This paper traces the development of the educational system of Botswana, a small south African country of one million, emphasizing its democratic origins and customs, historical influences, social trends, and economic support. Changes in the educational system, especially in universal primary education, since its independence from Great Britain in…

Research on the quality of foreign medical graduates (FMG) in terms of their competence or manifest abilities as measured by examinations, and their performance or actual behavior is briefly reviewed. In addition, some of the methodological problems that make research on foreign medical graduates difficult to interpret are critiqued, and…

Assessment practices used in elementary school classrooms in British Columbia (Canada) were explored through a survey that also considered the perspectives of the people directly affected by assessment: students, parents, teachers, and administrators. Data were collected through focus group interviews with each of the 4 respondent groups from 10…

It is argued that achievement test means, based on group scores, or other district-wide summary scores do not provide valid measures for diagnosing curriculum weaknesses nor for initiating curriculum changes. Group scores are probably valid for some purposes, but should not be used as criterion variables for evaluating the effectiveness of…

The 1975 Northeast Conference's Reports propose to help language teachers at every level define their goals, implement them, and help their students recognize their achievement of language skills. The three components explored in the Reports are curriculum, teaching styles and strategies, and evaluation techniques. These components should not be…

Greater knowledge about the practical application of Rasch technology can help in avoiding misapplications and confusions in testing programs. Equal interval curriculum-based scaling makes possible the following improvements in measuring basic skills achievement by enabling testing programs to: (1) individualize the difficulty level of…

Departmental differences in student perceptions of teaching effectiveness were measured using behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS). The 495 college students were taking junior and senior level courses in art, business, computer science, French, psychology, and sociology. Each subject completed either the BARS or a simple summated scale, both…

This paper presents the results of a study designed to provide an empirical test of a learning theory proposed by McKenzie and Staaf in which the student effort enters as an argument in the learning achievement function. The model states that final achievement in economics is equal to the initial stock of knowledge plus improvement, where…

The report showed ways of providing rural youths with quality schooling while keeping costs down. An Oklahoma survey of student needs measured quality differences between rural and urban areas. Students from farms, ranches, and small towns consistently ranked below students in middle and large cities on achievement tests in each grade level…

An evaluation was conducted of a comprehensive plan to restructure a primary school in Candler County, Georgia, into a non-graded, multi-age, continuous progress learning center. The project entailed restructuring the classroom, implementing a shared decision-making structure, developing a learning curriculum, and using portfolio assessment to…