Through a qualitative multiple case study, the researcher's goal in conducting this study was to investigate and understand the experiences of five upper elementary teachers in grades three through five who transitioned from traditional grading practices to standards-based grading (SBG) practices at one elementary school. Using Albert Bandura's…

Within a Response to Intervention (RtI) framework, Tier 1 instruction requires the selection of research-based core curricula. However, many educators and administrators are not aware of high-quality core writing curricula. The authors assembled a rubric to assist schools in evaluating core writing curricula for Grades 3-5. Rubric components…

This highly regarded work brings together prominent authorities on vocabulary teaching and learning to provide a comprehensive yet concise guide to effective instruction. The book showcases practical ways to teach specific vocabulary words and word-learning strategies and create engaging, word-rich classrooms. Instructional activities and games…

This brochure is intended to help teachers and parents prepare students for the North Carolina Open-Ended Assessments (in reading and mathematics) given at grades 4 and 8. The brochure states that teachers in grades 2-5 can use the information to prepare students for the open-ended assessments. This particular brochure focuses primarily on the…

Investigates the importance of using student interviews in the development of Chapter 1 diagnostic reading profiles. Finds that the type of information most often recorded in the existing reading profiles was from standardized measures. Finds that teachers and students were able to state unique and pertinent information. (RS)

The writing samples presented in this paper were selected from the portfolios of fourth-grade Vermont students as examples of the various points in Vermont's newly revised analytic writing assessment guide. The benchmark writing pieces in the paper, when used with the analytic assessment guide that begins the paper, are guideposts for assessing…

This report summarizes results for the second administration of the State Grade 4 English Language Arts (ELA) assessment for New York City public schools in February 2000, comparing 2000 results with results from the 1999 administration of the Grade 4 ELA and from New York state overall and other cities nationwide. Performance of New York City's…

Students at grades four and five were administered a writing assessment that was developed to correspond to the California Learning Assessment System (CLAS) writing tasks at grade four. Teachers were trained to score the CLAS-like tasks according to the rubric developed by the State for CLAS. In addition, 164 students at three schools in the…

This demonstration booklet illustrates the kind of exercises, test questions, and tasks used in the 2003 assessment of student achievement in reading and mathematics by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Each student will be asked to complete the background section and the cognitive sections for one subject, and the assessment…

This demonstration booklet illustrates the kind of exercises or test questions and tasks used in the assessment of student achievement in reading and writing by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for 2002. Each student will be asked to complete the background section and the cognitive sections for one subject, and the…

Describes how Michigan's English Language Arts Assessment (ELA) takes parts of the old fifth-grade writing assessment and fourth-grade reading tests, adds new elements, and wraps everything around a theme. Presents a seven-step activity to help prepare fourth graders for the ELA. Concludes that the overall impact on scores is not known. (SG)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment measured student knowledge, intellectual and participatory skills, and civic dispositions at the fourth grade level. This publication describes fourth graders' performance based on 30 questions from the fourth-grade assessment. Twenty-three of the thirty questions were…

This action research project implemented and evaluated an assessment and evaluation program designed to keep students motivated and on-task in art classes. Targeted population consisted of 76 fourth grade students in a middle to lower class suburb of a Midwestern city. Evidence to support the problem consisted of teacher observation checklists and…

A study examined how many and what kind of questions appear in elementary science and social studies textbooks and teachers' manuals. Approximately 7500 questions from fourth and fifth grade science and social science textbooks from three major publishers were classified according to the following characteristics: (1) type of cognitive demand; (2)…

This preliminary report on the findings of the Manitoba Writing Assessment Program for grade 4 contains a summary of student performance for the provincial sample as a whole. The report is based on a systematic random sample (224 papers) consisting of 50% of all students enrolled in grade 4 English in Franco-Manbitoban schools. Chapter 1 describes…