Although experts in gifted education widely promote cluster grouping gifted students, little empirical evidence is available to attest to its effectiveness. This study is an example of comparative action research in the form of a quantitative case study that focused on the mandated cluster grouping practices for gifted students in an urban…

This research described the retrospective formation of identity and manifestation of responsibility of four African-American female leaders who served as urban school principals. Cross (1971, 1991) determined that African-Americans undergo a four step process of identity development that he coined Nigrescence. Within these four stages of identity…

Statewide assessment data available from two school years, two grade levels, and five sources (achievement tests; student, principal, and teacher questionnaires; and principal interviews), were aggregated to more closely investigate the relationship between student/school characteristics and student achievement. To organize this large number of…

Grade four (20) and grade eight (20) Ontario parochial school children were interviewed to assess retrieval skills for school research projects, particularly selecting search areas/specific book sections for particular retrieval questions and evaluating gathered information. Older children were more skillful at generating/defining search areas and…

Documenting the design and data analysis procedures behind the 1992 Trial State Assessment in reading, this book also provides insight into the rationale behind the technical decisions made about the program. Chapters in the book are: (1) "Overview: The Design, Implementation, and Analysis of the 1992 Trial State Assessment Program in…

Factor analysis problems of scales with dichotomous items were illustrated using the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children. A different solution than that of R. E. Lindal and P. H. Venables (1983) was obtained, despite using similar samples--2 random samples of 671 and 674 male seventh and eighth graders. (SLD)

To investigate age-and ability-related differences in the effects of explictness reversibility, and clause order on children's comprehension of causal relationships, three experiments were conducted at grade levels three, five, and eight. Students read text in one of four formats. Several age differences, but no ability interactions, were found.…

This document reports on the history of social and behavioral research studies concerning nuclear war since 1945, highlighting those studies that focused on adolescents and their feelings of fear, hopelessness, powerlessness, and denial. A study, designed to assess the reactions of adolescents in grades six to eight to the threat of nuclear war is…

Indicated that subjects with reading disabilities gave significantly fewer correct responses on cloze tasks, but they took the same time as subjects without reading disabilities. (RB)

The paper identifies and addresses four methodological weaknesses common to most previous studies that have used LISREL confirmatory factor analysis to test for the factorial validity and invariance of a single measuring instrument. Specifically, the paper demonstrates the steps involved in: (1) conducting sensitivity analyses to determine a…

Containing the results of Oregon's second statewide analytical writing assessment, this document summarizes the procedures used to evaluate the writing skills of 4,567 eighth graders from 55 schools and analyzes the results. Following an introduction that includes comments from the scoring team, chapter 1 presents a brief history of writing…

For the 1987-1988 North Carolina Annual Testing Program in the area of writing assessment, public school students in grades 6 and 8 were tested on the composing characteristics of main idea, supporting detail, organization and coherence. A total of 78,045 sixth-grade students wrote a clarification composition focusing on their favorite place to…

Describes a study of the relationship between performance on word problems and general reading ability, certain problem-solving reading and thinking skills, and computation skills. (DD)