Curricula impart knowledge, instill values, and shape collective memory. Despite growing public funding for religious schools through U.S. school choice programs, little is known about what they teach. We examine textbooks from public schools, religious private schools, and home schools, applying computational methods -- including the use of…

This report provides information on the preparation provided to teacher candidates from teacher training programs so that they can fully use assessment data to improve classroom instruction. It follows a similar shorter report the authors released in March 2012. In this newest report, the authors have significantly expanded their initial sampling…

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provides comparative assessments of student outcomes, instructional practices, curricula, and cultural contexts. The state of Minnesota participated in the study as a 'mini nation' and this document is a preliminary report of the results. This summary provides a picture of the…

The Dallas Independent School District presents longitudinal trends in achievement test scores of students tested in each of its subdistricts from 1976 to 1982. Forms 5, 7, and 8 of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were administered. What the quasi-longitudinal and cohort-longitudinal test scores together affirm is that median scores have…

This report is designed to provide numerical data about student performance on the curriculum of the Boston (Massachusetts) Public Schools (BPS) as measured by curriculum referenced tests (CRTs). BPS Department of Educational Testing analyzed data from the 1986 CRT final exams in: reading and language arts (grades K-8), high school English (six…

A series of reports describes the activities of the Office of Research and Evaluation and compiles data descriptive of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. This report describes the system-wide evaluation data for the school year 1976-77, which demonstrate improved performance in the basic skills areas of reading and mathematics,…

This codebook for a machine-readable data file contains the frequencies for the values of variables for cases that are the individual activities in the Surroundings module of the BSCS Human Sciences Program. Students rated each activity on a six-item, Likert-type scale and responded to open-ended questions about the activity. Surroundings was one…

This report summarizes findings of the Los Angeles Unified School District's third annual Basic Activities Survey (BAS), held in spring 1985. The BAS measures opinions of certificated staff, classified staff, and parents concerning the district's performance in the areas of curriculum, teaching methods, and instructional materials. The sample…

This codebook for a machine-readable data file contains frequencies for the values of 310 variables for 446 student cases that comprised the field test data from the testing of Knowing, a Level III module of the BSCS Human Sciences Program. This module was developed and field tested with eighth-grade students in middle schools and junior high…

This report describes the findings of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research's 1999 national survey, in its series looking at the impact of educational reform on primary and intermediate schools. In 1989 reforms were enacted that abolished the Department of Education and began elections for boards of trustees who took responsibility for…

In order to assess the locally developed curricula, the Cherry Creek School District of Colorado developed several objective-referenced tests focused on objectives that instructional staff have identified as important for all district students. The local assessments are designed to work in conjunction with the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBSs) to…

Elementary and secondary school teachers were asked to rate the sources that influence their decisions on what they teach in their subject areas. Possible influential sources were identified as: (1) district consultants; (2) state or district recommended textbooks; (3) state curriculum guides; (4) commercially prepared materials; (5) teachers' own…

This codebook for a machine-readable data file contains the frequencies for the value of 23 variables for each of the 3,173 student-activity evaluation interactions (cases) for the 44 activities in the Human Sciences Knowing Module. Students rated each activity on an eight-item, Likert-type scale and responded to open-ended questions about the…

This codebook for a machine-readable data file contains frequencies for the values of 1,275 variables for 734 student cases that comprise the field-test data from the BSCS Human Sciences curriculum project. This three-year interdisciplinary science curriculum, designed for 11- to 14-year-olds, was field-tested in seven middle and junior high…

This codebook for a machine-readable data file contains eight variables that describe the characteristics of 623 activities or activity parts that comprise the activities used in the field test of the BSCS Human Sciences Program, 1973 to 1976, and 1977, in middle and junior high schools in the United States. The file also includes 52 variables…