Year-to-year rater variation may result in constructed response (CR) parameter changes, making CR items inappropriate to use in anchor sets for linking or equating. This study demonstrates how rater severity affected the writing and reading scores. Rater adjustments were made to statewide results using an item response theory (IRT) methodology…

Results indicate that children who frequently watch family television shows appear to believe that families in real life show the same support and concern for each other and that parents who discuss the reality and utility of such programs can influence the amount and kind of learning their children receive from television. (PD)

In 1979, East Tennessee educators developed an elementary school guidance curriculum guide for grades four-six. A 1980 questionnaire indicated that teachers using the guide are capable of carrying out a program of classroom guidance activities when they are provided with a suitable program, and that the results are positive. (LC)

Investigates the effects on marijuana use of a drug prevention curriculum, as well as this curriculum with added parent and other adult community activities in comparison with a control community. Baseline information on drug-related behaviors from a sample of fourth, fifth and sixth graders aged nine to fourteen years (N=1,200) in rural New…

Reactions to praise, blame, and reward received by two children were studied among 79 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Findings suggest an alternate and less differentiated cognitive mechanism for the paradoxical effects of praise and blame. Older children showed an increasing preference to be like the nonpraised, nonrewarded, or blamed child.…

Third- through sixth-grade mathematically talented students (n=306) enrolled in a flexibly paced university mathematics course far exceeded the normative achievement gains expected over a one-year period. Restricting such students to a rigid instructional pace may have a deleterious effect on motivation and achievement. (64 references) (MKR)

Examines responses of fourth, sixth, and eighth grade students to realistic and fantasy novels. Finds that students responded to fantasy with more categoric evaluations and to realism with more analytic evaluation. Finds also that evaluative responses moved from mainly categoric in grade four to more analytic in the upper grades. (KEH)

The first objective of this study was to establish to what extent metacognitive skill development is associated with intelligence. As a second objective, the generality vs. domain-specificity of maturing metacognitive skills was investigated. Both issues have major implications for the training and transferability of metacognitive skills.…

Numerous studies have demonstrated a decrease in the expression of internality in French sixth graders as compared to fifth graders. The present study examines normative clearsightedness in addition to internality across four French school grades (fourth to seventh). The results confirmed the sixth-grade drop in internality and showed that the…

This book offers teachers a handbook for teaching literacy to diverse students in grades 3-8. The balanced literacy method combines the best practices of phonics and other skill-based language instruction with the holistic, literature-based approach in order to help teach reading, writing, and speaking in a clear and approachable format. This…

This study investigated gender, developmental, and cross-cultural differences in the moral reasoning of 97 middle- and upper-middle class fourth and sixth graders in Mexico and the United States. A seven-item questionnaire from the Comprehension Subsections of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised and III) dealing with moral…

A study in two South African schools investigated the impact of encouraging free, voluntary reading on the English language skills of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners. Subjects were 139 fourth- through seventh-grade students in an experimental group and 105 students in a control group. Pretests of reading comprehension were administered…

The Alberta (Canada) teaching guide for French native language instruction in the later elementary school years (grades 4-6) is intended as a resource for classroom teachers. Its objective is to help teachers integrate notional content and meaningful communicative activities, both oral and written. Introductory sections discuss the guiding…

Five social studies programs at the fourth and sixth grade levels were examined to determine how much and what kind of reading comprehension instruction was provided in both the students' and teachers' editions of the texts. Programs studied were those published by Follett; Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich; Laidlaw; Macmillan; and Scott, Foresman.…

To determine how the difficulty of print materials affected elementary school students' sight copying accuracy and productivity and to explain correlate variance related to copying, 149 students in grades four, six, and eight were assigned materials to copy for three minutes. All subjects copied passages at grade level and at two grades above and…