Fear of poor teaching and low national test scores have spawned a back to basics movement and a shift from the use of tests as predictors and models to that of assessment and achievement. This movement may have positive impact on the teaching of English, which previously has not lent itself well to standardized testing. Although many English…

The need for improved accountability has led to more competency-based testing. This provides test makers with the opportunity to have greater impact on the curriculum. Several strategies are suggested for measurement-based instructional improvement. (Author/PN)

The symbolic function of curricular debate, as it is manifested in the minimum competency testing movement (MCT), is investigated. Curricular debate necessarily reflects the demands of the society in which it arises. The topics that are addressed spring from this milieu and the language in which issues are couched must be appropriate to it.…

Resulting from a project involving district, state, and federal educational agencies, the papers in this, the first of two volumes, are intended to provide information from research and practice that can help school districts in their efforts to make decisions about goals and methods of basic skills instruction. The topics of the papers in the…

This book examines the conditions for learning from the perspective of those students for whom schools are not productive and satisfying settings. Both current and desired characteristics of school environments are examined from the standpoint of their effect on marginal students. Questions probed include how difficulties begin and why individuals…

The chapters in this book contain a comprehensive reference to recent state appellate and federal court decisions affecting the operation and governance of public elementary and secondary schools. The chapters are: (1) "The Use of School Facilities by Student Groups for Religious Activities," (2) "Denial of Standard Diploma to…