Reported in this monograph are the results from a survey of composition teachers in the City University of New York (CUNY). The questionnaire used for the survey sought (1) to obtain quantitative data about teachers' instructional practices and about their perceptions of the impact of the Writing Skills Assessment Test (WSAT) of minimum writing…

This report presents information about the health status of older workers as it relates to extended work lives. The report contains unpublished data on the health status of civilian, noninstitutionalized middle-aged and older adults; the data are disaggregated so that narrow age differences within the older population can be observed and are…

Prospective elementary teachers were surveyed at the conclusion of the course "Methods and Materials for Teaching Elementary School Mathematics" and one semester later at the end of their student teaching experience. The study attempted to determine if the goals and objectives of the course were met and to examine the recommended emphasis for the…

This report documents the Massachusetts Statewide Assessment of Basic Skills in speaking and listening that was conducted during the 1979-80 school year. The four chapters of the report provide information about (1) the survey design and methodology, (2) the performance of twelfth grade students in listening, (3) the results of two measures of…

In the spring and summer of 1995, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the first cohort of eight projects in a new initiative, the Local Systemic Change through Teacher Enhancement (LSC) program. Eighteen additional projects were funded in 1996, 20 in 1997, 12 in 1998, 13 in 1999, 9 in 2000, 7 in 2001, and 1 in 2002 for a total of 88…

The reading performance of Hispanic children in the U.S. is becoming a central concern in education policy and reform. This paper reports the results of a study designed to evaluate the impacts of a form of the Success for All beginning reading program modified to meet the needs of Hispanic students, particularly those who are English language…

The Office of Policy and Evaluation of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) contracted with SRI International to conduct an outcome assessment of the Tibetan Scholarship Program (TSP). The purpose of this evaluation is to determine if the program has been successful in meeting these goals. The assessment…

Iowa's educational system is defined by the strong working relationship between the local school districts and area education agencies. Local districts provide the instructional program and area education agencies provide support services. Area education agencies (AEAs) were created in order to provide equity in the provision of programs and…

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to explore the impact of a direct reading instruction program, "Reading Mastery (RM)," on literacy performance of students over a five-year period. Initially, 700 students in grades K-3 were randomly selected from six elementary schools to participate in the study; an additional 100…

The Pacific Communities with High-performance in Literacy Development (Pacific CHILD) Professional Development Model research project was initiated in response to an overwhelming need in PREL's Pacific service region for improvement of teachers' knowledge and instructional practices in early reading. This report examines the question of the…

Kentucky's goal of reaching academic "proficiency" by 2014 illuminated problematic findings in 2002 reading test scores: 44.30% of middle and 71.25% of high school students scored below "proficient." The research question was, "Do teaching practices in schools with high reading achievement scores differ from teaching…

In this study, data from ECLS-K are used to estimate the degree to which specific aspects of teacher training--the teaching credential and coursework in pedagogy--and teaching experience are associated with student achievement. In addition, the study identifies the teacher-reported instructional practices associated with student achievement gains…

Northwest Evaluation Association regularly conducts studies of alignment between the RIT scale and the scales used for statewide achievement tests. In recent years, educational experts have put increasing emphasis on the need for triangulation of student achievement information in order to assure that important educational decisions are based on…

A recent five-state project, the National Forum on College-Level Learning, has demonstrated that learning, higher education's most important product, can be assessed in ways that make interstate comparison possible, that these assessments are consistent with other information known about the states, and that the results can be useful to…

This methodological report documents the design, development, and psychometric characteristics of the assessment instruments used in the third grade data collection of the ECLS-K. The instruments examined include those developed to measure cognitive and socioemotional development. In addition, issues in analyzing longitudinal measures are…