The selection and use of authentic reading materials for Spanish instruction of graduate-level international management students is described. Focus is on materials used in the second and third semesters of a 3-semester language course designed to foster communication skills. In the early part of the second semester, students present oral reports…

In 1985 the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessed the literacy skills of America's young adults. The survey stressed the complexity and diversity of literary tasks in American society rather than using a simplistic single standard for literacy. NAEP convened panels of experts whose deliberations led to this definition of…

A study was undertaken to examine psychometric properties of "La Prueba Riverside de Realizacion en Espanol" (PRRE) and the "Spanish Assessment of Basic Education" (SABE) when administered to a sample of limited-English-proficient students, grades 1 through 8. Spanish-language versions of both tests were used for the study.…

A self-administering test of oral language fluency was developed for use with high school teachers of French and Spanish. Interviews were also conducted, and biographical data were collected. The original instrument was based on the Foreign Language Questionnaire Pretest developed for the Survey of Global Understanding Project. The focus of the…

This handbook is a guide to the "Test Development Notebook" of the System for Pupil and Program Evaluation and Development (SPPED). It describes the contents and organization of the notebook, suggests various uses of the exercises, provides sample test designs, outlines test production procedures, and offers guidelines for score…

The curriculum guide for Ohio's secondary level programs in English as a second language (ESL) begins with background information on factors to consider in developing an ESL curriculum, including limited-English-proficient students' characteristics, the language acquisition process, skill areas to be covered, instructional goals for four major…

The selection of second and fifth grade students for the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study (BTES) is described. The BTES investigates teacher behaviors which relate to student achievement in reading and mathematics. From a group of teachers, schools, and districts volunteering to participate, 46 schools in 14 school districts were selected. The…

Empirical studies are reviewed of sex bias and psychometric bias in aptitude and achievement tests. It is concluded that: (1) of four studies of sex bias, all found that the language used in the tests favored males, but, at the elementary-secondary level, sex bias has been decreasing; (2) of 15 analyses of psychometric bias, all found an…

An attitude rating scale and instructional assessment survey were administered in 62 classes at the State University of New York at Cortland to examine the relationship between student ratings of instruction and students' course-oriented attitudes. The Adjective Rating Scale (ARS) was designed to measure course and program-oriented attitudes, and…

This project was composed of two major research experiments and four subsidiary experiments, designed to test alternative ways of constructing and applying occupational problem-solving materials. In Part I, Difficulty Level of Simulated Vocational Problems in Encouraging Career Exploration, it was found that the difficulty level did significantly…

Reviews the findings of some recent research on reading rate, comprehension, and subvocal speech; discusses how computer-assisted instruction can be used to help readers develop reading strategies for proficiency; and examines the implications of the research for software development, including drill and practice, reading process practice at…

The research question asked was "Will those children ages three and four who have intensive play experiences in play-based preschools and who can perform at high levels of LEGO building as constructional play also show high levels of mathematical achievement later in formal school settings?". Thus, this study attempts to establish a…

This article explores a qualitative evaluation of student and tutor perceptions of the educational aims, methods and impact of undertaking a new medical humanities student selected module (SSM) within one medical school in the United Kingdom. The findings of the study build on previous work within this subject area and provide insight of learning…

The understanding of children and adults regarding four component properties of the arithmetic mean was studied. The component properties were: (1) the mean is a data point between extreme values of a score distribution; (2) the sum of deviations about the mean equals zero; (3) when the mean is calculated, any value of zero must be taken into…

The Home English Literacy for Parents (HELP) project and curriculum were developed and implemented in seven schools in the northwest suburban Chicago area. Project services were offered to parents of bilingual program students 5 hours per week at each site. The curriculum consists of two phases of instruction (English survival competencies and…