The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was designed to measure knowledge, skills, and attitudes of young Americans at various ages in 10 learning areas, and to measure educational attainment over time. Community categories used in NAEP research were High and Low Metro, Urban Fringe, Main Big City, Medium City, Small Places…

The purposes of this bulletin are (1) to help teachers understand that evaluation is an essential part of the total composing process and involves both teacher and student, and (2) to establish evaluative criteria which reflect realistic objectives for the teaching of writing to students of varying abilities and age groups. Charts for both…

Purposes of this paper are to analyze youth's reactions to Watergate, look at the effects of age, class, and sex upon Watergate orientations, study the impact that school has had on these adolescent perceptions, and speculate about the American political future with these images in mind. Data are obtained from a questionnaire survey of 370 eighth…

Describes the results of survey of 1,100 grade 5, 8, and 11 students to determine their knowledge of and attitudes toward world affairs. Notes that age, sex, and class were the most important correlates and that children were only marginally more knowledgeable about domestic politics than international affairs. (SB)

English language learners (ELLs) were once expected to learn English before they learned critical content needed to succeed in school, but this is longer true, because now federal education laws require that ELLs be held to the same academic standards as other students. There are, however, requirements to assess and document progress on tests of…

The Civil War was perhaps the greatest turning point in U.S. history. The dual themes of slavery and power deeply divided the growing nation during the first half of the 19th century. The mission of the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) is to preserve the significant Civil War battlefields by protecting the land and educating the public about…

Utilizing student interviews, this study assessed fourth, eighth, and eleventh graders (n=105) in 11 Maine schools concerning their understanding of 4 natural and social science concepts related to pollution. The results hold direct implications for teaching strategies and curriculum design within the environmental and science education domains.…

Students' written responses to open-ended moral questions were studied by having 61 eighth graders, 73 eleventh graders, and 52 college sophomores respond to hypothetical dilemmas and describe their own moral reasoning. Mature moral reasoning is associated with noncontextual, nonemotional reasoning. Feminine moral concerns are important to all…

This study examined area-specific self-esteem scores by sexual behavior relative to adolescents' values concerning participation in sexual intercourse as an unmarried teenager. The sample consisted of 332 students in grades 7-12 from a Southern rural school district. Students were asked if they had ever had sexual intercourse (yes/no) and if they…

Metacognition is considered by most educationists to be an element necessary for many cognitive learning tasks. In general, within problem solving tasks, procedural, factual, and conceptual knowledge, by themselves, are insufficient for successful task completion. To be successful, the problem solver must usually demonstrate higher level cognitive…

The methodology and results of an assessment designed to determine the status of educational quality in grades 4, 8, and 11 social studies programs of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DODDS) is summarized. The assessment was part of the DODDS five-year curriculum development cycle comprised of the following phases: (1) development of…

BENCHMARKS is intended as an aid to the proper use of Georgia Statewide Testing Program scores. It provides information about the program and the tests; reading and understanding the various reports; understanding what the scores mean; and applying test results for the improvement of learning opportunities for Georgia children and youth. It is…

This study investigates the impact of cooperative learning and the impact of opportunity to interact with classmates on achievement and cross-handicap relationships. Results indicate that positive goal interdependence with collaborative-skills and academic group contingencies promoted positive relationships with nonhandicapped classmates, frequent…

Discussion of performance assessment focuses on a study that was part of the International Evaluation of Achievement of computer education that tested students in grades 8 and 11 on word processing performance tasks. Results are examined to determine the useability, reliability, and validity of the process. (eight references) (LRW)

The purpose of this study was to try to determine what influences girls to choose science. Forty girls were interviewed in Grades 2, 5, 8, 11 using a semistructured protocol. The interview focused on feelings about science, science careers, peer and parental support, and how science is taught. To determine whether their responses were based on…