In this study, the authors examined the college-ready graduate rates of all students (n = 1,099 high schools) in the State of Texas for the 2006-2007 school year. Data were analyzed for students' scores in reading, in math, and in both subject areas combined. Approximately one-third of all students were determined to be college-ready in both…

Traditional comparisons of test score means identify group differences in broad academic areas, but fail to provide substantive description of how the groups differ on the specific cognitive attributes required for success in the academic area. The rule space method (RSM) allows for group comparisons at the cognitive attribute level, which…

It is established that the socio-economic status (SES) of individual students is strongly associated with academic achievement but less is known about this relationship when both student and school socio-economic status are considered. To examine these associations at a finer grain, with the intent of informing educational funding policy, we…

What does it mean for a child to imitate someone else? We tested matched groups of children with and without autism (n = 16 for each group, with a mean chronological age of 11 years and a mean verbal mental age of 6 years) to investigate two potentially dissociable aspects of imitation: copying goal-directed actions, on the one hand, and imitating…

Two types of answer-copying statistics for detecting copiers in small-scale examinations are proposed. One statistic identifies the "copier-source" pair, and the other in addition suggests who is copier and who is source. Both types of statistics can be used when the examination has alternate test forms. A simulation study shows that the…

This paper first provides a critic of the implementation of compulsory national assessment protocols internationally, and then nationally through a review of the implementation process used for the introduction of National Standards in New Zealand, and National Testing in Norwegian mainstream schools. It then reviews the impact of these two…

The aim of the study was to explore the effects of cooperative learning on General Science achievement among 9th class students. Based upon previous research literature it was hypothesized that significant difference existed between the mean posttest scores of General Science achievement of experimental group and control group. The pretest…

Since the federal law IDEIA of 2004 allowed for the determination of LD eligibility for Special Education services, it was expected that School Psychologists would have begun spending less time devoted to standardized tests, and more time providing other services such as counseling, consultation, and interventions. Moreover, any benefit that these…

This study examines the impact of instrumental music study and group chess lessons on the standardized test scores of suburban elementary public school students (grades three through five) in Levittown, New York. The study divides the students into the following groups and compares the standardized test scores of each: a) instrumental music…

This paper reports the results of a descriptive study on the use of a technology-enhanced formative assessment system called Accelerated Math (AM) for ELLs and their native-English-speaking (NES) peers. It was comprised of analyses of an extant database of 18,549 students, including 2,057 ELLs, from grades 1 through 8 across 30 U.S. states. These…

More and more, schools are considering the use of progress monitoring data for high-stakes decisions such as special education eligibility, program changes to more restrictive environments, and major changes in educational goals. Those high-stakes types of data-based decisions will need methodological defensibility. Current practice for…

In this study, the researchers examined self-ratings from special and general education teacher candidates engaged in their culminating instructional activity prior to graduation: student teaching. Acquiring data at the end of the student teaching experience was targeted because student teaching is when teacher candidates apply the knowledge and…

Providing exploratory activities prior to explicit instruction can facilitate learning. However, the level of guidance provided during the exploration has largely gone unstudied. In this study, we examined the effects of 1 form of guidance, feedback, during exploratory mathematics problem solving for children with varying levels of prior domain…

With illiteracy in the United States at a staggering rate, school districts are spending more and more instructional dollars searching for intervention programs to address students' reading deficits. While, in the past, school districts have received funds through various state funding sources, the financial forecast for school districts is no…

Teaching a speech communication course in typical HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) comes with many issues, because the application of technology in some minority institutions differs. The levels of acceptability as well as affordability are also core issues that affect application. Using technology in the classroom means many…