Studied beyond students' failing scores on a state reading assessment to investigate the needs of struggling students and implications for policy. Results for 108 students in 17 elementary schools suggest that scores on state tests mask distinctive and multifaceted patterns of students'reading abilities that require dramatically different…

Elaborated a theoretical rationale for relational networks, norms, and trust as structural and functional norms of social capital that facilitate student achievement. Results of hierarchical generalized linear modeling show that the odds of fourth graders passing state-mandated assessments are modestly increased in urban schools (n=49)…

Estimates of the costs of including hands-on measures of science skills in a large-scale assessment program were derived from a field trial involving more than 2,000 fifth and sixth graders. Results suggest that complexity makes hands-on assessments more than three times as expensive as open-ended writing assessments. (SLD)

The relationship between school-level minimum competency testing (MCT) programs and student reading proficiency measured by the 1983-84 National Assessment of Educational Progress was studied in subsamples of 10,367 fourth graders, 10,829 eighth graders, and 13,513 eleventh graders. No advantages of MCT programs were seen in grade 4. (SLD)