This report, submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, contains summary details of Delaware students' growth in the areas of reading, mathematics, writing, science and social studies. The results reported herein are part of a long-term effort to gather data on Delaware students' educational progress and use the data to inform decisions about…

This document provides a guide for the development of the 2006 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) U.S. History Assessment. NAEP measures the U.S. history knowledge and skills of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. According to the NAEP U.S. history framework, the assessment should be organized around three dimensions: historical themes,…

Although students have been taking the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) Science test for a few years, the State has only recently set the achievement-level standards for the Science test. Science will be included in the school grade calculations for the first time in 2006-07. In addition, although no official guidelines exist…

This study investigated the comparability of scores for paper and computer versions of a writing test administered to eighth grade students. Two essay prompts were given on paper to a nationally representative sample as part of the 2002 main NAEP writing assessment. The same two essay prompts were subsequently administered on computer to a second…

With the mandate of "No Child Left Behind," high-stakes achievement testing is firmly in place in every state. The few studies that have explored the effectiveness of high-stakes testing using NAEP scores have yielded mixed results. This study considered state demographic characteristics for each NAEP testing period in reading, writing,…

This book reports the findings of a study of adolescent culture and language in eighth graders. The books consists of ten chapters including discussions of the following topics: (1) "Remember When?" a theoretical framework; (2) "Gender, Talk, and School Culture," an interpretive and a dialectic approach to the study of gender, talk, and…

Asian-Americans' exceptional academic achievement has generated a great deal of interest on the part of educators in search of explanations for the phenomenon. In particular, Asian-Americans' mathematics achievement has been remarkable and many studies have found these students outperforming students from other ethnic groups. A study was conducted…

This document, which is intended for technology educators in Mississippi, outlines a modular instruction approach that allows eighth graders to experience various workplace technologies within four career cluster areas: agriculture/natural resources technology, business/marketing technology, health/human services technology, and…

This study examined whether the level of academic achievement changed when deaf pupils in Sweden were introduced to sign communication at the preschool or kindergarten level. The study compared performance of 40 deaf students, attending a school for the deaf, on a comprehensive testing program (covering Swedish language and mathematical and…

This report, which is the seventh in a series, presents data from 1994 on high school dropout and retention rates and examines high school graduation and completion rates. Included is an analysis of the 1994 high school completion status and subsequent life activities of members of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 cohort of eighth…

For each of two years, 50 Hispanic and Black eighth graders were selected for a field-based, environmental science summer program designed to nurture math and science talent and encourage bright, minority youth to persist in school. Students were selected on the basis of participation in an outreach program, essays, grades, recommendations, and an…

The material provides a comprehensive look at the design, goals, and methods to be used in the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Civics Assessment. This assessment will attempt to gauge the civic knowledge and skills of the nation's 4th, 8th, and 12th grade students. To do well on the assessment, students will have to show…

This study examines the conditions under which Spanish proficiency is associated with self-esteem among Mexican American adolescents. The study questions the validity of a gross relationship between Spanish proficiency and self-esteem and postulates that the link is stronger: (1) for youth whose significant others prefer speaking Spanish; (2) for…

This study is second in a series demonstrating that achievement tests are multidimensional and that using psychologically meaningful subscores in national educational surveys can enhance test validity and usefulness. National Education Longitudinal Study 1988 (NELS:88) 8th- and 10th-grade science tests were subjected to full information item…

Data from the 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Trial State Assessment (TSA) in mathematics were analyzed to determine what educational factors influence student learning, how these factors influence learning, and how important these factors are to student achievement. NAEP TSA data were collected from more than 100,000…