Curricular analyses, written by experienced teachers and experts, of the 1978 Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress (IIEP) results and teacher expectations regarding citizenship are presented. A random sample of 7,200 Illinois students within 360 schools (grades 4, 8, 11) were tested; results reflected their educational performance in these…

The results of the 1977 and 1979 Statewide Assessment Tests in Alaska are presented. This assessment testing is part of the testing component within the Alaska Statewide Instructional Support System (SISS), and is based on specific objectives critical to a student's academic success. Objectives covered are: mathematics computation, mathematics…

As part of the 1977 British Columbia Mathematics Assessment, over 100,000 students from Grades 4, 8, and 12 were given tests designed to measure mastery of a limited number of important mathematical skills and concepts. Approximately 3,500 teachers of mathematics at seven different grade levels (1,3,4,7,8,10,12) completed comprehensive…

CALLING CAREERS is a televised series of fifteen 20-minute lessons intended to acquaint fourth through eighth grade students with twelve vocational clusters and to demonstrate the opportunities contained within them, the relationships between them, and the personal characteristics and work habits they require. The series also demonstrates how jobs…

Examines the effects of humorous distortions on children's learning from educational television. Measured information acquisition and funniness after exposure, and concludes that humor in educational messages that distorts information will give children faulty impressions of novel phenomena. (MM)

The main purpose of this study was to illustrate a polytomous IRT-based linking procedure that adjusts for rater variations. Test scores from two administrations of a statewide reading assessment were used. An anchor set of Year 1 students' constructed responses were rescored by Year 2 raters. To adjust for year-to-year rater variation in IRT…

So far, results from the massive Third International Mathematics and Science Study indicate that American students have not yet achieved national goal number 5--to be first in the world in math and science achievement by 2000. Although fourth graders' results were surprisingly stronger than eighth graders' scores, American students' overall…

Experiments involving a componential approach to analogy training were conducted with 36 fourth, 34 eighth, and 96 tenth graders. Results indicate a significant positive effect on all students' verbal analogy skills and no significant effect on fourth graders' inferential skills. In-class training and reading/language arts instruction implications…

Examines the comparative use of grapho/phonic and syntactic/semantic cues for ongoing word recognition by readers in grades two, four, six, and eight reading both silently and orally. Finds a greater number of altered words were identified in the oral compared to the silent reading mode in grades four, six, and eight. (RS)

Researchers gave low ratings to 73% of fourth-graders' informative writing samples on NAEP's 1992 Writing Portfolio Study. Teachers blame changing demographics, science and math emphases, the self-esteem movement, standardized tests, and fast-paced lifestyles. Administrators must encourage student writing, support teachers, schedule more language…

Researchers examined student listening and reading performance to determine weaknesses in listening and reading comprehension, questioning whether performances of students with such problems suggest differences in processing strategies. Results showed significant between-group listening and reading differences. Using listening to measure optimal…

Analyzes the effect of grade level on stances students take when responding to literature. Finds that a two-way analysis of variance for grade and text on the variable of stance reveals no significant main effects for grade. (PRA)

Presents teacher and student responses that show a privileging of girls' writing over boys' writing. Finds that girls' writing was viewed as more detailed, descriptive, and showing greater conformity to writing conventions. Indicates a need for conversations that question an emphasis on conformity in writing and that explore ways to nurture…

Surveyed more than 900 students in the rural northwest at the 4th-, 6th-, 8th-, and 10th-grade levels for alcohol and drug use. Measured self-reported usage of 17 substances. Reports descriptive statistical results by gender and grade-level usage rates. Discussion includes targeting drug prevention programs for specific grade and gender levels…

Many people predicted that 2005 would be the year that schools nationwide began feeling the bite of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, as states ratcheted up their performance targets and more schools failed to meet those benchmarks. But such dire predictions are not playing out uniformly across the states. Of the 33 states and the District of…