The Michigan Context and Performance Report Card measures school performance by adjusting standardized test scores to account for student background. Comparing schools using unadjusted test scores ignores the significant relationship between academic performance and student socioeconomic background--a dynamic outside a school's control. The…

In this paper we consider the challenges involved in evaluating teacher preparation programs when controlling for school contextual bias. Including school fixed effects in the achievement models used to estimate preparation program effects controls for school environment by relying on differences among student outcomes within the same schools to…

This report summarizes research findings and implementation practices for teacher and principal value-added models (VAMs), as a first step in the Team Pennsylvania Foundation's (Team PA) pilot project to inform the development of a full, statewide model evaluation system. We have selected 21 studies that represent key issues and findings in the…

Explores whether flexible nonlinear models (including neural networks and genetic algorithms) can reveal otherwise unexpected patterns of relationship in typical school-productivity data. Applying three types of algorithms alongside regression modeling to school-level data in 183 elementary schools proves the hypothesis and reveals new directions…

Past research suggests that young children are incapable of reporting information about their own behavior problems. To test this, we examined the validity and the usefulness of children's self-reports in the E-Risk Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of 2,232 children. We used the Berkeley Puppet Interview to obtain children's…

This paper considers, from a theoretical point of view, two measurement approaches used in measuring success and failure in skills tests in physical education. The first, "fixed length" (FL) testing, entails counting the number of successful performances in a fixed number of trials. The second, "trials-to-criterion" (TTC)…

The effects of two different approaches to training community nurses in patient self-care were evaluated. In an intensive workshop, 36 nurses were trained, and 19 of them received further personal guidance 11 times during a 6-month period. Their performance was assessed before the educational intervention, after the workshop, and after the…

Part of understanding the issues that surround the implementation of transformative federal mandates such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is the accumulation of sound, evidenced-based findings that are coupled with rich descriptive explanatory findings. By doing so, the research community supports educational practice to continually…

This technical report describes a study that was undertaken to compare the content of two recent fourth-and eighth-grade assessments in science: the NAEP 2000 assessment and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 assessment. Its aim is to provide information that will be useful for interpreting and comparing the…

Data from 8 of the 13 instruments used to provide answers to the decision and evaluation questions for evaluation of the 1980-81 ESEA Title I regular program in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District comprise Volume II of the final technical report. A separate appendix for each instrument includes a description of its purpose, procedure,…

Seventeen instruments were used to provide the answers to the design and evaluation questions for the 1979-80 ESEA Title I regular program in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. In the final technical report, a separate appendix for each instrument includes a description of its purpose, procedure, and results as related to specific…

This study used data from 992 cases in 16 longitudinal studies of the Early Intervention Research Institute to evaluate five measures of family functioning: (1) Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale-III; (2) Family Support Scale; (3) Family Resources Scale; (4) Parenting Stress Index; and (5) Family Inventory of Life Events.…

A comprehensive guide for observers using the Pupil Activities Record--Revised (PAR-R), this manual covers procedures followed in systematic observation of a student's classroom activities for the period of one instructional day. The manual provides general information about the purpose and design of the PAR and explains the revisions, which were…

The purpose of this study was to use realistically simulated data to evaluate various CAT designs for use with the verbal reasoning measure of the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). Factors such as item pool depth, content constraints, and item formats often cause repeated adaptive administrations of an item at ability levels that are not…

Major conclusions highlighted in the summary of the 1980-81 ESEA Title I evaluation of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District are: using Title I and local funds to lower pupil/teacher ratios to 15:1 produced an effective compensatory education program; across grades, low-achieving students benefited more from lower pupil/teacher ratios…