The demand for STEM college graduates is increasing. However, recent studies show there are not enough STEM majors to fulfill this need. This deficiency can be partially attributed to a gender discrepancy in the number of female STEM graduates and to the high rate of attrition of STEM majors. As STEM attrition has been associated with students…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships that may exist among mean scores on the math and reading portions of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) of eighth grade gifted students of different gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Significant changes have been made to Georgia's gifted identification procedures over the last…

Above-level testing is the practice of administering aptitude or academic achievement tests that are designed for typical students in higher grades or older age-groups to gifted or high-achieving students. Although widely accepted in gifted education, above-level testing has not been subject to careful psychometric scrutiny. In this study, I…

The purpose of this article is to describe and demonstrate a three-step process of using differential distractor functioning (DDF) in a post hoc analysis to understand sources of differential item functioning (DIF) in multiple-choice testing. The process is demonstrated on two multiple-choice tests that used complex alternatives (e.g., "No…

Elementary school students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as an operational rather than a relational symbol. Such misunderstanding is problematic because solving equations with missing numbers may be important for the development of higher order mathematics skills, including solving word problems. Research indicates equal-sign instruction…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Iowa for 2010. In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Iowa had data for racial/ethnic subgroups, low income students, and boys and girls at the proficient and advanced levels. Trends at the proficient and advanced levels were…

This study investigated multiple models for assessing oral reading fluency, including 1-minute oral reading measures that produce scores reported as words correct per minute (wcpm). We compared a measure of wcpm with measures of the individual and combined indicators of oral reading fluency (rate, accuracy, prosody, and comprehension) to examine…

Differences in Iowa Tests of Basic Skills scores were compared between Rhode Island fourth and eighth graders, and between parochial and public school students. This final report is organized in four major sections, plus appendices. The interviewing component activities are described in the first section, and clustered under six areas: convening…

Whether boys and girls perform differently on mathematics estimation items with a picture format (applied context [AC] items) compared with items with a numbers-only (NC) format was studied when effects of computational skill, conceptual knowledge, and quantitative ability were controlled. Subjects were approximately 80,000 students from grades 4…

Student achievement as reflected in standardized test scores is not a unitary construct, but a set of interdependent components representing degrees of knowledge of various subject areas. The interdependency of achievement components imply a positive feedback process. Weaknesses in one area reinforce weaknesses in others; strengths in one area…

The purpose of this study was to: (1) compare the book selection preferences of inner-city and suburban fourth and sixth grade children, and (2) determine if children consistently chose books according to categories of literature. Comparison of inner-city and suburban students of the same sex and reading level provided a control for sex and…

The content of selected major achievement tests is examined for bias in the frequency of references to the male and the female sex. The performance of males and females is contrasted on each item considered, and the relationships between item content and the performance differences is surveyed. The tests used in this study include the Metropolitan…

As part of its academic testing program and the evaluation of academic achievement, the Des Moines (Iowa) Public School System administers two standardized, norm-referenced achievement tests. These are the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) and the Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED). This document provides information regarding…

The Annual Test Report, 1981-82 has been developed as a reference on the results of the California Achievement Tests (CAT) in the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The report contains several analyses of the results from the CAT administration in Grades 3, 5, 8, and 11. Overall countywide results are presented and they are also broken down…

The Quality Measurement Project was established in 1956 by the New York State Education Department to determine the feasibility of measuring quality differences between schools and of identifying variables related to these differences. In the latest revision of the project, begun in 1964, 99 representative school systems, excluding the New York…