This document describes the North Carolina Open-Ended Assessment for grades 4 and 8 and presents results for the 1999-2000 administration. The assessment emphasizes higher level thinking skills and requires students to apply or demonstrate skills and knowledge beyond the recall level on challenging subject matter. The open-ended assessment has…

Maryland participated in the State National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1996 and 1998 when samples of approximately 2,500 fourth and eighth graders in 100 schools participated in the testing sessions for mathematics (1996) and reading (1998). This report is an initial attempt to return information to Maryland about the relations…

Compares the performance of learning disabled students on the WISC-R and the Tests of Cognitive Abilities from the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery. This study finds that learning disabled subjects performed more poorly on the Tests of Cognitive Abilities than on the WISC-R. (Author)

Explains that Year 5 students in ten British schools took a mathematics division test twice in the school year. The test involved context and bare problems to identify changes in approach as the standard algorithm was introduced. Reports that 52 percent of students gained a higher score on the second test. (CMK)

Compares sixth-graders' math and reading achievement at year-round and traditional schools in the same (Ohio) school district. Uses a randomized, control-group, posttest-only method controlling for the effects of history maturation and pretesting. The statistical and practical results favor the alternative year-round calendar, particularly when…

The comprehensive approach to arts education, moving art from the academic fringes into the core curriculum, is producing excellent results at one Bedford, Texas, elementary school. Students there are thinking smarter and performing better. Mathematics, reading, and writing scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills are steadily improving.…

A study to determine effects of Lightspan Partnership Inc.'s interactive materials on student achievement in a Denver- area elementary school revealed higher reading and math test scores for Lightspan schools, compared to control schools. This serious play curriculum, assisted by parents, benefited neediest kids most. (MLH)

Ending all social promotion is ill-advised. A responsible decision on grade retention should be based on factors such as a child's age, health, maturity, testing readiness, previous academic performance, and available emedial services. Many retained children do not show enough improvement to justify the practice. (MLH)

The results in the first report on the mathematical abilities of 9- and 13-year-old students by the National Assessment of Educational Progress are summarized and interpreted. A similar report on secondary school mathematics students appears in SE 514 760. (SD) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Results…

This study employed a multiple regression to predict examinees' differential performance when tested by familiar and unfamiliar examiners. Subjects were 32 preschool and school-age handicapped children, each of whom had been tested on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Functions, once by a familiar and once by an unfamiliar tester, within a…

In Holland, it recently has been recognized that minority students are underrepresented in schools for learning disabled (LD) and are overrepresented in schools for the educable mentally retarded (EMR). In 1983, a study was begun in Rotterdam to determine why some students of Surinamese, Turkish, and Moroccan origin were placed in schools for the…

Change efforts undertaken by schools and districts as a result of obtaining data from the October 1976 testing of 40 mathematics objectives for fourth graders in Delaware are briefly described. End-of-the-year results from 13 districts which gave posttests in May 1977 are also presented. Data are reported by total score, strand, and objective. A…

A Friends for Education (FFE) survey revealed that no state is below the norm at the elementary school level on six nationally normed commercially available achievement tests. Tests use a norm group from the past for comparison, but FFE suspects that inaccurate initial norms and teaching the test may cause high scores. (SLD)

Officials of the United States Department of Education conclude that the pervasive "above average" achievement reported by J. J. Cannell (1988) results from a combination of testing practices and procedures among school testing programs. Causative factors of this paradox, dubbed the "Lake Wobegon Phenomenon," are discussed.…