This report highlights the perceptions of parents, whose opinions are rarely sought and whose voices tend to be lost in decisions about how assessments are developed, administered and used. Parents are key consumers of assessment information--and, as taxpayers, they pay for assessments. Classroom teachers and district administrators have the most…

This study tested if parents taught to use an interactive ("dialogic") reading style to promote early vocabulary skills continued to read this way as their children grew older. Approximately half the 78 participants received instruction in dialogic reading when their child was age 2 or 3 years, the other half had no prior instruction. Parent-child…

Two dimensions of parent-school relationships, parental school involvement and parents' perceptions of teacher responsiveness to child/parent, were examined in state-funded pre-kindergarten classrooms in a large urban school district. Children's social and academic outcomes were individually assessed in the fall and spring. Hierarchical Linear…

The Philippine Thematic Apperception Test was administered to 22 intellectually superior Filipino children aged 4 to 9 years from private and public school settings as a means to explore their socio-emotional concerns. A grounded analysis of their narratives revealed the following themes: (a) importance of family relationships, (b) perceptions on…

In Texas, fifth grade students are required to pass both the reading and math sections of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test, in order to be promoted to the next grade level. The purpose of this study is to describe parents' perceptions of the influence of the high-stakes TAKS test on the family lives of at-risk fifth grade…

A school principal at Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School in Richmond, Virginia, describes the application of the Clifton Youth StrengthsExplorer assessment developed by the Gallup organization. A fifth-grade girl who was in frequent conflict with peers and teachers was helped to identify her strengths and develop more effective emotional and…

Through a collaboration with a public school in a poor, urban, largely Latino neighborhood, a multisystemic program was designed to foster positive youth development and promote school success. Aspects of the program highlighted include (a) the rationale; (b) interventions developed with and for youth, their parents, and their teachers; (c) the…

The role of school psychologists with training in neuropsychology is examined within the context of multitiered models of service delivery and educational reform policies. An expanded role is suggested that builds on expertise in the assessment of neurodevelopmental disorders and extends to broader tiers through consultation practice. Changes in…

This handbook is designed to help parents learn more about what is taking place in the schools their children attend and to help parents evaluate the effectiveness of the school's academic program. It offers tips for locating important information and identifies where assistance can be obtained. A checklist is provided to help parents identify the…

These two brochures contain the philosophy and principles of evaluating and reporting pupil achievement (including a definition of the regular marking system) adopted by the Wichita Public Schools. Evaluating and reporting are viewed as a single process which is an integral part of the teaching/learning process. Communication with pupils and…

The Coping with Disability Scales (CDS) (J. Perry and E. Bard, 1992) was developed to provide a social-emotional assessment specific to disabilities. This report provides a preliminary test of construct validity for a Resilience Profile from the Parent Rating Scale of the CDS through factor analysis, focusing on three subdomains: (1) Disability…

Factor analyses identified 3 domains of resiliency with 11 separate factors involving 54 items for exceptional urban students based on 613 parent ratings of an initial pool of 94 items for an experimental Coping with Disabilities Scales. The factors were labeled: Knowledge of Exceptionality; Planning for Needs; and Alternative Thinking for the…

Louisiana is one of the few states to produce and distribute school report cards to public school parents statewide. The state undertook a formal evaluation, here reported, of the "1991-92 Report Cards." In Phase 1 a random sample of roughly 2,000 parents and 6,000 faculty statewide was surveyed by mail with a 30-item questionnaire…

Five elements necessary for the rigorous evaluation of bilingual programs are discussed: (1) careful collection of meaningful baseline data from selected subjects; (2) the identification and development of instruments to measure key variables, such as context and student characteristics; (3) the identification of treatment characteristics, such as…

Results of an investigation of the construct validity of measurements of social and academic competencies of 175 3rd graders, 193 7th graders, and 159 11th graders made by the students themselves, teachers, parents, and peers suggest that researchers should consider making greater use of parent ratings for elementary school students. (SLD)