The Elementary School Success Profile (ESSP) is a multidimensional instrument for school-based practitioners that assesses the social environmental domains of neighborhood, school, friends, and family, as well as the well-being, behavior, and school performance of students in the third, fourth, and fifth grade. This article presents the…

A study investigated the effectiveness of a program for improving the recreational reading habits of elementary students through the use of cross-age tutoring in critical reading strategies. The targeted population consisted of a kindergarten and a fourth-grade class in the growing upper-middle-class community of Geneva, Illinois, located…

In the 1992-93 school year, the 13th year of the Arizona Pupil Achievement Testing Program, the State Board of Education mandated testing at grades 4, 7, and 10. The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) were administered to grades 4 and 7 and the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP) at grade 10. Pupil scores are reported by subject, subtest,…

The unit which this teacher's guide and student notebook are designed to implement is intended for use with students in grades 4-6 in the Northwest Territories (Canada). The unit aims to develop in students an understanding of the concepts related to rules and laws; the need to deal with rules and laws in a constructive manner; and an appreciation…

This document is a practicum designed to respond to concerns from both parents and staff about the duplication of instructional topics or themes in more than one grade, while other topics were not covered at all. The development of a predictable core curriculum framework for grades K-5 was one of several goals of this project to provide a…

This study investigated the teacher expectancy effects (also called Pygmalion effects) on the grading of both fourth-grade spelling tests and eighth-grade essay tests by 19 teachers in central Virginia public schools. Spelling tests contained the same five misspellings, but differed in the legibility and gender of the sample. The essays varied…

Some standard-setting methods require judges to estimate the probability that an examinee who just meets an achievement standard will answer each of a set of items correctly. These probability estimates are then used to infer the values on some latent scale that, in theory, determines an examinee's responses. The paper focuses on the procedures…

Surprisingly little systematic research has been conducted using school records as a source in determining students' at-risk status for achievement and behavioral difficulties. School records represent measures of permanent products of student behavior and chronicle attempts to meet the diverse needs of the school population. Behavioral profiles…

If teachers are teaching a set of standard content and assessments are made consistently, the relationship between these various assessments and the curriculum should be of interest. The purpose of this study was to explore the consistency of the mathematical measures of three prominent forms of mathematics assessment: standardized tests,…

This practicum project implemented a program designed to improve the motivation to learn among fourth- and fifth-graders in a fast growing, industrial community surrounded by prosperous farms in northern Illinois. The problem of low motivation was documented by systematic classroom observations, teacher interviews, and student surveys. Analysis of…

This newsletter introduces the 1994 NAEP U.S. history assessment, which tested a representative sample of 22,000 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students across the United States. This issue presents a context for understanding the U.S. history assessment. The newsletter is divided into the following sections: (1) "The NAEP U.S. History…

This report is a first look at the results of the 1994 NAEP U.S. History Assessment. It presents national findings of 4th-, 8th-, and 12-grade students' overall performance and summary data for the major demographic subpopulations in the United States. Results are reported on a 500-point scale, used to show comparisons and trends over time, and…

A study investigated the attitudes and beliefs of three groups of third- and fourth-grade classroom teachers (special education pull-out, bilingual credentialed, and bilingual waivered, n=18 per group) concerning the reading assessment of Latino language minority students. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews, a written…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students in the United States know and can do in various academic subjects. The 1996 NAEP in mathematics assessed the current level of mathematical achievement as a mechanism for informing education reform. In 1996, 44…

Current educational theory and practice clearly show that project-based instruction has the potential to enhance learning. Preliminary findings on one type of project-based learning in which students take on the role of hypermedia designers support this claim. This study examined the effect of being hypermedia designers on fourth-graders'…