In this paper we describe content focused, practical procedures to establish benchmarked performance standards for educational and other tests. To implement our procedures, we identify one or more external benchmark (e.g., NAEP or PISA performance levels, college and career readiness benchmarks); link to the external benchmarks to locate those…

Gender gaps in the development of mathematical and scientific literacy have important implications for the general public's understanding of scientific issues and for the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and math. We subjected data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to a meta-analysis to examine…

Video games have become a popular medium in our society, and recent scholarship suggests that games can support substantial learning. This study stems from a project in which we created a video game enabling students to use biotechnology to solve a societal problem. As students engaged in the game, they necessarily interacted with the underlying…

To design a series of assessments that could be used to compare the learning gains of high school students studying the cardiopulmonary system using traditional methods to those who used a collaborative computer simulation, called "Mr. Vetro". Five teachers and 264 HS biology students participated in the study. The students were in…

Presents a discussion of the problem of the decline in science achievement of students as it relates to the reluctance of teachers to adopt innovative teaching techniques and take advantage of the results of research. (BB)

This study demonstrated a direct relationship between achievement level (measured by responses to biological items on the 1977 National Assessment of Educational Progress's science survey) and concept emphasis in biology textbooks. In addition, recommendations of Project Synthesis were not found in newer biology textbooks. Other findings are…

Describes aspects of the current status of biology teaching at the pre-college level, from an analysis of data collected from three NSF surveys, the NAEP, current textbooks, and other sources. Discusses previous and prospective viewpoints regarding goals of biology education, its curriculum, teachers, laboratory, and contemporary status. (CS)…

This report presents the results of a study conducted during the 1995-1996 school year to evaluate the educational progress of 12th grade students taking advanced biology, chemistry, and physics courses. The study was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in association with the National Assessment of Educational…