Many special education (SPED) students are failing the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) despite writing instruction provided by SPED teachers. The purpose of this study was to understand teachers' perceptions about why students were failing the literacy/writing test and document whether evidence-based assessment and writing practices…

The purpose of this research is to examine assessment and evaluation activities of secondary school 9th and 10th grade physics textbooks in Turkey according to the revised Bloom Taxonomy and PISA science literacy competence levels. In this study document review, a qualitative research method was used. Within the scope of the study, assessment…

Background: Students' perceptions of classroom goals influence their adoption of personal goals. To assess different forms of classroom goals, recent studies have favoured an overall measure of performance classroom goals, compared to a two-dimensional assessment of performance-approach and performance-avoidance classroom goals (PAVCG). Aims: This…

Educational systems in the United States are generating vast amounts of data on student achievement. This may provide researchers and policy makers with long sought-after insight on the factors explaining student performance. This study uses recent data from Washington 10th graders to examine why some students learned more math than others.…

Physics educators around the world often need reliable diagnostic materials to measure students' understanding of physics concept in high school. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a new diagnostic tool on High School Optics concept. Test of Conceptual Understanding on High School Optics (TOCUSO) consists of 25 conceptual items that measures…

The high school graduation rate in Tennessee has failed to meet the state required benchmark of 90%. The state graduation rate in 2003 was 76%, in 2004 it was 75.7%, 2005 it was 77.9%, and in 2006 it was 80.7%. The Tennessee State Department of Education is searching for effective methods to increase the graduation rate for Tennessee high schools.…

This study examines the overall results of the Physical Fitness Test (PFT) and the six fitness areas of the PFT, academic achievement, demographics and self perceptions and the potential impact on students' performance on the PFT. While academic expectations are increasing, the adolescent obesity rate is also increasing, producing a decline in the…

This investigation was performed to determine if different methods of evaluating homework would produce a noticeable difference in unit test performance. Two different high school math classes were given a traditional homework assignment for a 6-week period and then were given a five question mastery check the next 6-week period. The average test…

This study aimed to identify the types of arguments promoted in various contexts common to a high school chemistry classroom, including lecture-discussion and laboratory activities. The study was guided by the following research question: What types of argument structures and schemes, if any, are promoted and engaged by students within various…

A set of studies done for the Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction (WSPI) constituted a case study testing the conjecture that management consulting is potentially cost effective in some areas of educational evaluation. The case study involved first interviewing 22 respondents from four WSPI constituencies (educators, employers,…

A study examined the effect of topic-specific background knowledge on the general quality and local coherence of student writing. Ninety-seven tenth grade students were assigned two writing tasks on specific topics at two points during a semester. J. Langer's measure of topic-specific knowledge was administered prior to each writing task. Each…

Aligned with its 1998 standards for first- and second-language learning, Alberta Learning has published lesson plans that aim for a closer relationship between learning and evaluation. Each volume in this series presents a specific task for students that involves planning, carrying out, and evaluating their work. The task for tenth grade students…

The agreement of diagnostic classifications from two parallel subtests assessing a mathematics skill with three levels of scoring was studied with 431 Arab Israeli 10th graders. Results indicate that, even when parallel form reliability is high, less agreement is apparent when performance is evaluated at the micro level. (SLD)

This study investigates gender differences with regard to three factors of scientific literacy. The study involved students (N=772) in Grades 9 and 10. A 100-item multiple choice test based on National Science Education Standards was used to assess scientific literacy while gender differences were explored using analysis of variance procedures.…

Presents research on the scientific question-posing capabilities of 10th-grade students (n=127) who were studying air quality in a cooperative way using the jigsaw method. Finds that the difference between students at high and low academic levels to the extent of increase in both number and complexity of posed questions was significant. Contains…