The purpose of this study was to determine if grade level configuration and student achievement in science, specifically fifth grade Science TAKS scores are related. This study utilized a causal comparative (ex post facto) design to determine if a consistent relationship existed between fifth grade students' success on the science TAKS at the…

According to an extensive review of the literature, effective instructional delivery and "classroom management" practices are critical factors to elevate student achievement (Shindler, Jones, Williams, Taylor, & Cadenas, 2012). The purpose of this study was to analyze a comparison of classroom management practices on student…

The validity of cloze as a measure of intersentential comprehension (across-sentence information integration) was studied with 281 fifth graders by comparing it with a second measure expressly designed to assess such comprehension. Results suggest that cloze scores may reflect intersentential comprehension sufficiently to warrant their continued…

A procedure-based observational scoring system and a notebook completed by students were evaluated as science assessments for 41 fifth grade students experienced in hands-on science and 55 fifth grade students inexperienced in hands-on science. Results suggest that notebooks may be a reasonable, although less reliable, surrogate for observed…

Consisting of items from the 1998 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment as well as some items created specifically for the Practice Test, this Practice Test intends to be representative of the type of test and contain items similar to those that appear on actual grade 5 reading tests. These practice tests are not intended to be psychometrically…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a teacher can use one type of assessment to evaluate students' abilities fairly. The question is whether or not alternative assessment strategies are necessary to meet students' individual needs. The research, conducted with 28 fifth-grade students, compared their traditional and alternative…

The knowledge that 35 fifth graders and 37 sixth graders had about a historical period was characterized by focusing on the fifth graders before they studied the Revolutionary War, and sixth graders 1 year after they studied the topic. Students' knowledge before and after instruction included simple associations and lacked connected structures.…

Curriculum mapping activities can be useful in analyzing curriculum goals and planning curriculum revision. This document is specifically designed using the Science Education Curriculum Goals articulated by the State of Oregon for grade 5. The goal areas include concepts, processing, manipulative skills, interests, values, interactions and…

This study was designed to develop effective and time efficient assessment techniques for self-appraisal of science text and science reading and to assess middle grade students' metacognitive knowledge about science text and science reading. Standardized interviews, word associations, concept maps, and objective examinations were administered to…

This document investigates issues, principles, and practices in music education programs in elementary schools. Objectives were to determine how music education programs meet the intellectual, cultural, and artistic needs of children in a changing society and to provide direction in planning and implementing more realistic and comprehensive music…

This is a step-by-step guide to developing a social skills curriculum and designing its instruction. It teaches how to construct assessments and plan interventions to address problems in student social behavior using procedures that can be used to set instructional goals and develop interventions for almost any student who has trouble with social…

The ways in which knowledge of mechanical motion is affected by contextual factors of assessment such as means of depiction (ranging from abstract to contextualized) and the effect of sequencing of contexts (from abstract to contextualized or contextualized to abstract) on students' display of knowledge were studied for 40 fifth graders in two…

This manual is designed to accompany Pennsylvania's Educational Quality Assessment (EQA) elementary school reports to assist in their interpretation and understanding. The normative sample is described as stratified on two dimensions: district enrollment and wealth. Administration procedures are summarized. The cognitive and non-cognitive areas…

The resources necessary to create, administer, and score performance assessments in science were studied. RAND and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) designed performance tasks for science in grades five and six as part of a larger study of the feasibility of science performance assessment. Tasks were developed in pairs in task…

A strategy that has surfaced as a means of promoting success in the classroom is that of automatic retesting for all children whose scores are unsatisfactory on any administered test. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether the automatic retesting of every student not scoring above a certain point on unit tests is actually…