The Cognitive Science Laboratory of the University of Southern California has conducted a series of studies on the experimental effects of motivation on a low-stakes (to the student) standardized test. This report summarizes these studies and their results. The test in question is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). A series of…

This report presents a first look at national and state-level findings of students' overall proficiency in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1994 reading assessment for grades 4, 8, and 12 and provides comparisons with the performance of their 1992 counterparts. The first chapter introduces the report, discussing topics such…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has developed a new generation of assessment tasks for evaluating student achievement in music. Using paper-and-pencil and performance formats, these tasks draw on the musical traditions of many cultures and historical periods. This report summarizes results from the 1997 assessment of eighth…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a congressionally mandated survey of educational achievement of American students in a variety of curriculum areas and of changes in that achievement over time. The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) has established new standards for reporting the results that determined three…

The purpose of this report is to examine how well students in Massachusetts are meeting the Goals of Education, as measured by the Massachusetts Education Assessment Program (MEAP). The first section of this report defines various levels of proficiency and then compares different groups within the student population in terms of the percentages…

Data from 20 years (1970-90) of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are summarized. The NAEP represents the nation's only ongoing assessment of the academic achievement of American students. Its assessments of educational achievement of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 are presented as "The Nation's Report Card".…

In 1977, 8th and 12th grade students (n=889) from largely rural schools in 3 Idaho counties were surveyed as representive of both early and late stages of the teenage period to determine levels and patterns of liquor consumption. Respondents categorized themselves as nondrinkers (NDs), seldom drinkers (SDs), occasional drinkers (ODs), and frequent…

This curriculum framework represents a consensus about expectations for student learning in New Hampshire public schools in the arts. The introduction poses the framework and answers the following questions: What is the role of the arts in education? How do quality arts programs contribute to school environment? How do the arts develop workplace…

This report presents the results of the 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment for the nation and for the participating states and jurisdictions. Comparisons are made to students' performance in the national assessments of 1992, 1994, and 1998 at grades 4, 8, and 12. Comparison data are given within and across…

This report highlights the results of the 2002 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade reading assessment for the nation. Results in 2002 are compared to previous NAEP reading assessments. It describes assessment content; presents major findings as average scale scores and percentages of students…

Data from the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) 1998 Reading Report Card show increased scores for low-performing students in the 4th and 8th grades in 1998 as compared to 1994, but no change at the 12th grade. Scores for low-performing students in the 8th grade were higher in 1998 than in either 1994 or 1992. Scores for…

This paper compares data on the prevalence of alcohol and other drug use by students in grades 8 and 12 across four sizes of communities. Data from the American Drug and Alcohol Survey (ADAS), administered in approximately 250 communities during the 1992-93 and 1993-94 school years, were analyzed for four community sizes: very small (population…

Over the past quarter of a century, the Monitoring the Future study has tracked young American's use of psychoactive substances, both illicit and licit. In this volume, findings are presented on the prevalence and trends of drug use and related factors for secondary school students (eight, tenth, and twelfth graders). Distinctions are made among…

The effects of an incentive (money) on the motivation of students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics test were studied. Results with 749 8th graders and 719 12th graders indicate that, at least for 8th graders, student effort can be increased by financial rewards and that this effort results in higher scores.…

Similes and metaphors were extracted from over 2,000 papers by students in grades 4, 8, 12, and the third year of college to study the effects of age, grade, sex, mode, and writing competence on these figures of writing. Students worked with more abstract forms as they grew older. (SLD)