The purpose of this quantitative study was to provide school district leaders and policymakers information of the impact grade configuration had on academic performance using math and ELA ILEARN scores over a three-year period. The study included data from 585 schools that were classified into four groups: Elementary Setting, Intermediate Setting,…

This collection of student essays provides illustrations of the criteria used to grade the composition portion of the sixth-grade achievement test used in Alberta (Canada). An introductory section describes the procedures for selecting the essays used, establishing scoring norms, and scoring the tests, and offers general comments on the writing…

This study was designed to assess the effect of a process oriented elementary science curriculum upon students' achievement. The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) Complete Battery with the social studies and science supplements was administered to sixth grade students completing one, two, or three years of the Science through Discovery program in…

The performance-based assessment was developed to assess students' higher order thinking skills in real-life problem-solving situations in Alberta, Canada. These tasks assess aspects of science that cannot be measured easily by regular paper and pencil tests. The purpose of this document is to provide teachers, administrators, students, and…

This curriculum guide seeks to contribute vision to the values and goals of outdoor education and to show their relevance to all curricular areas. Direction is provided for developing and implementing a dynamic curriculum in outdoor education. The guide is divided into three sections. Section I addresses the informational needs of administrators…

During the last 10 years, cognitive science researchers have produced research findings that have great potential for increasing students' understanding of science. However, commercial publishers continue to produce textbooks and teacher's guides in traditional ways. This project developed a prototype unit which used an alternative approach to…

This paper describes the results of a student science assessment test and teacher questionnaire surveying 424 sixth grade teachers in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The student test measures student attitudes to science and scientists, knowledge in life, physical and earth science, and student competence on 12 science processes…

This booklet provides Grade 6 teachers, administrators, and students with samples of students' writing that exemplify the criteria used to score students' written responses on the June 1988 Grade 6 English Language Arts Achievement Test. The writing assignment required students to read the beginning of a story and use their imaginations to…

Item specifications developed by the Arkansas Department of Education as part of the Minimum Performance Testing Program (MPT) appear in this document. Specifically, the social studies materials given to sixth-grade students on the MPT are included. The purpose of an item specification is to provide an overview of the general content and format of…

When students make the transition from elementary school to junior high school, they experience abrupt organizational changes in their school environment. The hypothesis that social comparison processes mediate the relation between ability grouping practices in mathematics and students' achievement expectancies was tested in a longitudinal sample…

This book offers an alternative to the traditional teacher-parent conference by giving the responsibility for assessment to the students. As students reflect on their own learning, seek out the views of others, and prepare their own portfolios, they come to know themselves as learners. The process combines assessment, teacher research, parent…

Reports on a 3-year study of approximately 100 students through grades 4, 5, and 6 on the impact of a variety of second-language learning options among English-speaking children in francophone Canada. Finds that those options that use early, French-only environments were most effective. (CFR)

A survey of the parents at a middle school in central Florida indicated that parents believed homework should contribute to the student's grade and that 47% of the respondents felt that mathematics should have daily homework. Based on these results, a study was conducted to determine the effects of implementing an innovative automated…

The introduction of the Multiple Ability Curriculum (MAC) and Expectation Training (ET) into the curriculum of racially integrated elementary schools appears to improve the equal status interaction between students of differing academic and social status. The goals of the MAC and ET are the following: (1) prevent classroom dominance by students of…

This document is designed to help school personnel analyze their current curriculum for grades 6, 7, and 8 in terms of the Mathematics Common Curriculum for Oregon. The common curriculum goals are organized into nine content strands: (1) number and numeration; (2) appropriate computational skills; (3) problem solving; (4) geometry and…