The use of portfolio assessment as a method of evaluating the writing competence of elementary school students was studied. The study contained two components: (1) an empirical study of the utility and meaningfulness of using an analytic rubric developed for the evaluation of traditional writing samples to score student portfolios; and (2) a…

The Cognitive Education Project conducted a 3-year longitudinal evaluation of two cognitive education programs that were aimed at teaching thinking skills. The critical difference between the two experimental programs was that one, Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment (IE) method, was taught out of curricular content, while the other, the…

The Oregon State Board of Education initiated the Oregon Statewide Assessment Program in 1973 as a means for gathering data on student performance in the basic skills areas. Tests were administered to 27,086 fourth, seventh and eleventh grade students in 405 schools selected at random in March of 1982. Test results were returned to participating…

A study investigated the development of information processing as it relates to the development of reading skills by studying how good readers and poor readers utilized orthographic information. Subjects, 90 good and poor readers from grades 2, 4, and 6, participated in four 30-minute sessions in which they were required to make a same/different…

This report presents statistical data on the characteristics, distribution, enrollment rate, and academic achievement of language-minority children in Maine. The report contains three parts: (1) summative data on the total numbers of K-12 English monolingual and bilingual children in the state, private and public school survey return rates,…

This curriculum guide supplements the Alabama "Health Education Course of Study," which offers a comprehensive planned sequential curriculum for grades K-12. The largest section of the guide consists of classroom activities which are tied to specific student outcomes. A list of materials needed to carry out the activities is provided.…

This unit of study on Japan contains the following content areas: Unit Focus/Motivation; Islands of Japan; Living on an Island; Buildings; Economics; Transportation; and Culminating Activities. The objectives of the unit include knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Suggested activities for each of the content areas are offered and explained to assist…

To determine whether students enrolled in one Ontario region's early French immersion (FI) programs developed English reading skills comparable to their non-FI peers, a monitoring process was begun in the first FI program year (grade 3) in which formal English instruction is given. The FI cohort and a control group matched for mental abilities and…

The purpose of this research was to develop and test a method of identifying groups of students participating in a mandated statewide norm-referenced testing program who have undergone highly specific training in preparation for, or coaching during, test administration. The implementation of the analysis procedure was intended not only to identify…

Scotland has a system of national surveys of achievement intended to provide information for educational policy and practice. Testing of middle school students in the areas of mathematics, reading, English, and science, is designed to provide national information as opposed to information about individual pupils, schools or local authorities. This…

Designed to accompany the "Elementary Art Curriculum Guide," this resource is divided into 3 levels: level 1 grades 1-2, level 2 grades 3-4, and level 3 grades 5-6. The material is presented in a standardized format which includes four major components: reflection, depiction, composition, and expression. Once a concept has been chosen,…

As part of the language arts curriculum framework developed in accordance with "Rules, Regulations, and Minimum Standards" of the Tennessee State Board of Education, this reading curriculum guide of the Basic Skills First Program is designed to identify the minimum reading skills for fourth grade students. After brief explanations of the…

As part of the language arts curriculum framework developed in accordance with "Rules, Regulations, and Minimum Standards" of the Tennessee State Board of Education, this language arts curriculum guide contains the goals, concepts, and terminal objectives for fourth grade language arts. Following a brief introduction and description of…

An outline of the French curriculum used in the Radford, Virginia schools is presented. It consists of outlines of the major and supplementary materials and linguistic content used in each year of the four-year Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES) program. A brief introductory section describes the program's origins and instructional…

An assessment of the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) City-Wide Testing Program is presented to determine the effects of using customized achievement tests to achieve multiple purposes. The tests are derived from, or related to, the tests in a nationally standardized test battery, but include items written specifically to measure the local curriculum.…