These are the appendixes for the report, "Trends and Gaps in Reading Achievement across Kindergarten and Grade 1 in Two Illinois School Districts." This study examined reading achievement data for kindergarten and grade 1 students in two districts in Illinois: District U-46 (Elgin Area Schools) and District 186 (Springfield Public…

To assess education progress in the early grades and identify achievement gaps, this study examined reading achievement data for kindergarten and grade 1 students in two districts in Illinois: District U-46 (Elgin Area Schools) and District 186 (Springfield Public Schools). Drawing on a different reading assessment in each district, the study team…

Making decisions about English reading instruction is as core a component to teaching as providing the instruction itself. When providing support to learners at risk for poor reading outcomes, for which currently there is a large percentage in South Africa, it is especially important to ensure that the decisions that are made have the highest…

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines not just what students know in science, reading and mathematics, but what they can do with what they know. This report is the product of a collaborative effort between the countries participating in PISA, the national and international experts and institutions working within…

The purpose of this technical assistance paper is to provide a description of the procedures used to determine school grades for the 2014 school year. Florida's current school accountability system originated with state legislation passed in 1999 (the "A+ Plan") and has been revised periodically to reflect increased standards and…

Christoph and Nystrand (2001) argue that teachers need to take pedagogical risks in order to realize a transformation from teaching monologically, where it is ultimately only the teacher's voice that matters, to teaching dialogically, where multiple voices collide to foster learning. The pedagogical risks of teaching dialogically include…

To help teachers, policy analysts, and others understand the 1994 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Assessment in Reading, this journal issue presents the objectives and examples of how students in grades 4, 8, and 12 will be assessed. The issue discusses NAEP's view of reading; key features of the assessment; reading purposes;…

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences between Reading/Language achievement gains of students in multi-age classrooms to the Reading/Language achievement gains of their peers in traditional, single-age classrooms. The causal-comparative quantitative approach to exploring cause-and-effect relationships was employed in this study.…

This document contains materials directly related to the actual reading test of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), including the reading rubric, released passages, selected-response questions with answer keys, performance tasks, and scored samples of students' responses to the tasks. All of these items may be duplicated to…

Each spring, Arizona students participate in testing as part of the state's assessment program. Elementary and middle school students in grades 3 through 8 take the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards--Dual Purpose Assessment (AIMS DPA) in reading, writing, and mathematics. These tests serve as an important measure of student achievement for…

Beginning in 1999, all of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) had to be aligned with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards. This handbook describes the PSSA reading assessment. It contains samples and instructions for developing assessment items for grades 5, 8, and 11. Although designed for teachers, the Handbook is meant to be a…

This discussion of assessing students' reading abilities focuses on the need for developing better tests and better interpretation of test scores. Criterion-referenced tests versus norm-referenced tests are described, highlighting the Degrees of Reading Power and Metropolitan Achievement Tests: Reading, and the need for assessing the reading…

The objectives and assessment characteristics of the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Tests for grade 1 are given to show teachers the range of content and type of questions. In mathematics, objectives are defined in areas of: (1) concept identification, recognition of the names and relationships between numbers; (2) component operations, use of…

The objectives and assessment characteristics of the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Tests of reading and mathematics for grade 2 are given to familiarize teachers and curriculum directors. In mathematics, objectives are defined for: (1) concept identification, testing understanding of the basic vocabulary and relationships of numbers; (2) component…

The objectives and assessment characteristics of the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Tests for grade 3 are defined for reading and mathematics. Mathematics objectives are given for: (1) concept identification, the recognition of names, relations, and properties of numbers and units; (2) component operations, using numbers and unit of measurement; and…