Although accurate assessment of bullying is essential to intervention planning and the evaluation of bullying prevention programs, assessment has been called the "Achilles' heel" of bullying research (Cornell, Sheras, & Cole, 2006). Problems have been cited about variations in definitions and time frames used, whether or not to…

This practicum was developed to involve Hispanic parents in a middle school where Hispanic parent involvement was nonexistent. Thirty at-risk Hispanic eighth graders in an urban middle school were identified by the eighth-grade guidance counselor as in danger of not being promoted to the ninth grade. The objectives of this practicum were that 30%…

One component of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) is the state's performance-based assessments, criterion-referenced tests that require students to apply what they know and can do to solve problems and display other higher-order thinking skills. This document helps parents, teachers, students, and other citizens…

This thesis investigates the sensitivity of junior high/middle school students to statements depicting verbal and physical sexual harassment. The independent variables that were investigated included gender, grade level, age, size of district, grades received, participation in sports, birth order, developmental level, and self-esteem. Students…

This report describes the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a learning activity package intended to enable middle school students to view and use the computer as a tool that has application in their everyday lives. Eighth grade students in two keyboarding classes used the computer as a word processing tool in the subject of…

An instructor in a junior high school English program which involved teaching approximately 160 eighth graders on a daily basis found it almost impossible to assess students fairly by taking individual differences into account when grading. Her solution was to invite students to participate in the construction, performance, and evaluation of their…

A poetry unit was developed for a practicum project in a regular eighth-grade English class to improve student participation and to decrease speech anxiety for students. Methods employed within this unit included the use of clarity and structure, classroom environment, student-chosen seating, praise and success, small group activities, share time,…

The design and development of a test of inference ability in reading comprehension for grades 6, 7, and 8 (the Phillips-Patterson Test of Inference Ability in Reading Comprehension) are described. After development of a contemporary theoretical framework for the test of inference ability in reading comprehension, the design, item development, and…

This study documented middle school students' perceptions of their educational experiences, tracking how their perceptions evolved over 3 years and corresponding to the Philadelphia School District's implementation of its Children Achieving reform agenda. Fifty 6th graders were chosen from each of six urban schools and interviewed in the spring of…

Describes a study to diagnose grade 8 (n=185) and grade 10 (n=170) Israeli students' difficulties in causal thinking while studying biology. The two main difficulties found are (1) inability to organize events according to their correct temporal sequence and (2) inability to identify an event that had been caused by another event. (MDH)

In spring 1994, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) collected information on student achievement in reading, U.S. history, and geography at grades 4, 8, and 12. To provide a context for interpreting NAEP findings, the project collected background information from students, teachers, and school administrators using separate…

This guide is one of a set of 10 science guides, each covering a separate grade in Manitoba, together covering kindergarten through grade 9. The guides have been designed to provide a framework for building scientific concepts and developing the learning of process skills. They replace an earlier set of guides dated 1979. Each guide is essentially…

The Maryland School Performance Program released six sample tasks to illustrate the types of assessment tasks that would appear on the 1992 Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP). Students' responses to these tasks are open-ended; that is, students generate their own responses. A wide range of responses to each task is acceptable.…

This handbook is part of a series of three, corresponding to the three grades (4, 6, and 8) at which Mastery Tests are administered. This publication was written as a resource for teachers developing mathematics programs for students in grades 7 and 8. The Mastery Test in Mathematics at Grade 8 assesses student performance for 36 instructional…

In February 1989, statewide assessment tests in reading, mathematics, and writing were given to a sample of eighth graders throughout Oregon. The results and analyses of reading and mathematics assessments are presented. Important trends are described based on the analysis of data from 1985, 1987, and 1989. The 1989 information provides the first…