In October 1991, a labor market assessment was conducted to provide information and direction for the curriculum development and evaluation efforts of the Eastern Iowa Community College District's (EICCD's) Business Computer Programming (BCP) Program. The study focused on employment opportunities for and educational needs of personnel performing…

The second International Assessment of Educational Progress focused on the mathematics and science achievement of 13-year-olds. Performance assessments were used as part of the overall assessment in four countries (England, Scotland, Soviet Union, and Taiwan) and five Canadian provinces. The performance assessment approach drew heavily on the…

A project was undertaken to test feminist teaching strategies designed to improve women students' confidence and engagement in the physical sciences classroom. The strategies under study included peer-support partnerships, writing in the learning process, and systematic self-disclosure by the teacher. In each of four semesters from 1991 to 1992,…

A comparison is presented of alternate-choice and true-false item forms used in an undergraduate natural science course. The alternate-choice item is a modified two-choice multiple-choice item in which the two responses are included within the question stem. This study (1) compared the difficulty level, discrimination level, reliability, and…

Engineering instruction is examined as revealed in a study of science education at two-year colleges which involved a review of the literature, an analysis of the catalogs and class schedules of 175 institutions, and a survey of 144 engineering instructors. The report first presents a general profile of engineering technology education based on…

To discover children's knowledge about computer operation and programing characteristics and its effect on children's perceptions of computer expertise, pre- and posttests were administered to 292 children from 5th, 7th and 9th grades. Children were randomly assigned to see a factual film on computers or to a film on another subject. It was…

The purpose of this project was to determine workforce needs in the new information technology/knowledge-based world in order to design a coherent minor program in information technology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for the non-technically oriented college student. The process consisted of three phases: site visits to five…

Most Virtual Learning Environments are designed to be simple to use by staff and students alike. We report a case study where this feature has led academic staff to reject formal centralised training and teach themselves how to use the system. What has resulted is widespread use of the system but with poor pedagogic development, leading primarily…

Integrated Diverse Enrichment for Academic Learning (Project IDEAL) was an Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title VII-funded project in its second year of operation in 1993-94 at Walton High School in the Bronx (New York). Project IDEAL served 174 students of limited English proficiency. Participants received instruction in English as a…

First conducted during the 1987-88 school year, the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) provides periodic data on public and private schools in the United States. The Student Records Questionnaire was added during the 1993-94 cycle of SASS to collect student-level data from public schools, private schools, and schools funded by the Bureau of Indian…

This study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative research designs to analyze and evaluate procedures used in selecting youth for state-supported residential high schools for mathematics and science. Pre-admission and post-admission data were gathered for 742 students in 7 schools. Predictor variables included home school grade point…

The annual report on achievement testing in Alberta (Canada) includes test results for third-grade students in language learning (for the regular English program), sixth-grade students in social studies, and ninth-grade students in science. Results are regarded in terms of curriculum standards, assessment standards, and achievement standards.…

Three political scientists, three historians, three social studies professors (higher education), and seven secondary school teachers of social studies or history were interviewed. Focus was on assessing key concepts in the subjects' disciplines and what concepts should be taught and tested for at the high school level, with a view toward…

The purpose of the Model Academic Curriculum Project was to assess and define the most effective components of the curriculum for Massachusetts vocational-technical schools that would be reflective of current academic demands and employment needs. Eight study goals were implemented: establish statewide meetings; identify/select study groups;…

By focusing on four-year colleges, academies/training centers, and community colleges, a study identified some of the duplication and gaps in public safety education in California. Survey instruments were designed to identify the current status of public safety education and elicit data regarding respondents' ideas about the desired direction that…