Gives an account of Gail Reynolds's experience in administrating the DART (Developmental assessment resource for teachers) and AIM (Achievement improvement monitor) tests at her school. Reflects on how the test results compared with her own judgments of the literacy abilities of individual students in her class. Offers four case studies that draw…

Describes the experience of one English teacher who bent the rules of the school when faced with the task of writing an "interim report" on a bright yet underachieving student. Shows how a teacher's willingness to improvise and invent methods and rules in individual cases is sometimes essential for student growth and well-being. (HB)

Six years ago the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation began a virtual high school within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Designed primarily to provide courses in specialized areas to students in rural areas, where schools have difficulty in attracting second language, mathematics and science teachers. However, there has…

This study goes beyond student perceptions of online learning experiences, satisfaction, and attitudes, to examine the actual participation and dynamics that occur in online discussions and their relationship to student learning outcomes. A content analysis approach was used to investigate students' socio-cognitive processes in an online…

This descriptive, quantitative study examined the effects of participation in a 1-year Early Start Preschool Program for 4-year-olds in a state that requires annual testing at the end of select grades. This study focused primarily on achievement through grade 3. As no study has evaluated the effectiveness of the program, this research examined…

The practicum described in this report aimed to improve student achievement in a ninth-grade English class in New Hampshire by restructuring the program so that students felt more involved in the course content, delivery, and process. Students in three sections of ninth-grade English who were identified in eighth grade as stable, high achievers,…

A study was conducted at Butte College to determine the effectiveness of the college's assessment and placement program. Between January 1981 and summer 1982, the Nelson-Denny Reading Test and a writing sample were used in placement; while after summer 1982, the Stanford Task Tests of English and Reading Abilities were used. The primary file of…

A study was conducted to determine if teachers' use of transitions and additional unexplained content influenced student achievement and perception of lesson effectiveness. One hundred eleventh grade English students were randomly assigned to one of four groups defined by possible combinations of two teacher transition conditions (transitions or…

In this study, a comparison was made between the achievement scores in English usage of students who were assigned English classes during their last two years of high school and the scores of students who elected English classes. The 667 participants in this study were members of the 1970 and 1972 graduating classes at Aviation High School,…

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the academic achievement of students enrolled in an elective English program with the achievement of students enrolled in a traditional English program. The 320 subjects were eleventh and twelfth grade students at two New Jersey high schools, selected at random, and assigned to groups according…

This document is an annotated bibliography consisting of 34 entries dealing with research on class size; the research is directed toward finding an optimum class size which would prove favorable not only to administrative and economic concerns but also to the performance of students. Some documents concern themselves with the question of large or…

Concludes that the higher the cognitive level reached and maintained by the teacher during an instructional session, the higher the mean performance of pupils following an instructional session. (Author/RL)

This study compared the effects of programed-test instruction and computer-assisted instruction on achievement in 11 areas of English grammar. In contrast to the findings of previous research on the subject, significant differences in achievement were found favoring the programed-text method over the computer-assisted method. (Author/CT)

An essay review of "Teaching Styles and Pupil Progress" (London: Open Books, 1976), in which Neville Bennett investigates the relationship of teaching styles to pupil progress as revealed in reading, math, and English test scores. Also included are excerpts from English critics. (Author/JM)