ACT maintains that monitoring academic strengths and weaknesses through the effective use of results from standardized tests can promote learning and intellectual growth. When schools use achievement test scores to guide curriculum choices and to provide feedback to students, opportunities for learning increase. The ACT Educational Planning and…

Behavioral Research and Teaching (BRT) has developed a series of mathematics tests to assist local school districts in identifying students in grades 1-8 who may be at risk of not meeting year-end mathematics achievement goals. The tests were developed using the state mathematics standards for the relevant grade levels and administered to students…

In just the last ten years, goaded by broad and still unsettled cultural shifts, education practices have changed dramatically. Schools are no longer just recording and analyzing inputs--dollars spent, number of days of instruction, numbers of students per teacher--but pushing their data-gathering and analysis efforts into the brave new world of…

This paper presents a curriculum, textbook and test result analysis for the new (to California) elementary school "Key Standard" mathematics curriculum, transplanted in 1998 from it's foreign roots in Asia and Europe, locations with far different cultural and economic backgrounds. Based on topic analysis methods developed by Michigan…

Many state and federal governments have mandated in such documents as the National Science Education Standards that inquiry strategies should be the focus of the teaching of science within school classrooms. The difficult part for success is changing teacher practices from perceived traditional ways of teaching to more inquiry-based approaches.…

This article reports the findings of a study showing that one-third of all foreign students who studied at Australian universities speak English so poorly that they should never have been granted visas to study in the country in the first place. The study, by Robert Birrell, director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Australia's…

This paper presents a revised and updated version of a FORTRAN program which computes all indices used in the Flanders' Interaction Matrix. The new program has added another form of data input which simplifies data entry. The new version also has the capability of interactive terminal use. (Author)

This study tested the hypothesis that multiple trial scores for a subject are normally distributed. (JS)

The purpose of this study was to test experimentally the efficacy of the ancient advice that speakers should use previews and reviews. Each of four groups was presented a version of an audio-taped speech on listening. The speech was identical for each group in all respects but one: group 1 heard the speech with preview only; group 2, preview and…

A method of grading essay examinations that measures the credibility, quality, and volume of a student's answers is explained. Responses are marked either correct or incorrect and assigned a point value, using the system which is described. (Author/RAO)

A method of computing percentile ranks from the logistic distribution function is described. The method was applied to three distributions of number-right scores from the Law School Admission Test, and compared to percentile ranks computed using linear interpolation. (Author/JKS)

The effectiveness of smoothing in reducing random errors in equipercentile equating of a short writing assessment with two raters, two prompts, with scores ranging from zero to five was examined. Thirteen methods were examined: no equating, three presmoothing, three postsmoothing, three combination presmoothing and postsmoothing, mean equating,…