There is considerable speculation and some empirical evidence that teacher collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) in urban school districts are more restrictive to district administrators than CBAs in other districts. We build on prior work by comparing urban with nonurban CBAs in three states--California, Michigan, and Washington--and, for a set…

With the concurrent emphasis on accountability, prevention, and early intervention, curriculum-based measurement of reading (R-CBM) is playing an increasingly important role in the educational process. This study investigated the differences in diagnostic accuracy and utility between commercial norms and local norms when making high-stakes, local…

A total of 47 gifted and nongifted African American and Euro-American elementary students were rated by their teachers on a multidimensional instrument developed to minimize language considerations and to rely on local norms (Universal Multiple Abilities Scales [UMAS; McCallum & Bracken, 2012a]). Results from two factorial MANOVAs revealed no…

This report describes important features of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SM-MUSD), providing background information as the district establishes its goals. The analysis shows that SM-MUSD's total revenues are greater than those of similar districts and Los Angeles County on a per-pupil basis but below the revenues of…

The monograph presents a set of social and economic indicators developed for each of the 118 counties in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah which comprise the joint Far West Lab/SWRL laboratory service regions. The objective of developing and mapping these indicators was to delineate major similarities and differences among these counties in…

Examined the appropriateness and usefulness of Kuder's General Interest Survey, Form E, with a homogeneous Native American population by comparing the distribution of scores obtained by ninth-grade Native Americans with norms provided in the manual. Results suggest using local norms for interpretations with such homogeneous and divergent cultural…

Discusses a comparative analysis of the "biggest problems question" used in both the 1996 Annual Gallup Poll of Public Education and a 1996 Houston-area district's five-year, strategic-planning survey. Although both groups identified some common concerns (discipline, drug abuse, violence, crime, and gangs), national poll respondents…

Following the federal court's Ann Arbor (Michigan) decision regarding the education of children who speak black English, the National Institute of Education and the Ann Arbor Public Schools cosponsored a national conference on the subject, the proceedings of which are summarized in this paper. Following an introduction, the paper provides…

A national study was conducted to determine both the perceived importance and the current practices of ongoing staff development programs in different regions in the United States. Responses to questionnaires were received from 267 school districts. A total of 51 school districts from the South, 49 from the Midwest, 44 from the East, and 39 from…

A survey test in mathematics was administered to all pupils (N=5,557) in grade 6 of Vancouver schools. The three parts of the test--computation, concepts, and problems, were given in separate sessions. The same test was given in 1969. The median scores in 1972 for the three subtests and for total score were somewhat lower than those in 1969. A…

With the growth of globalization, organizations are facing an increased challenge to manage talent, improve employee engagement, develop effective teams, create succession pipelines, and increase organizational effectiveness in multinational settings. Given the need to evaluate and compare individuals from more than one country using standardized…

The Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning--Revised (DIAL-R) is a standardized developmental screening instrument designed to assess the motor, language (both receptive and expressive), and conceptual skill levels of children 2 to 6 years of age. The appropriateness of national norms for children in Kentucky was studied in a…

Investigated the need for local and/or separate racial-ethnic group norms on the Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children (ABIC). A sample of 420 children was stratified according to gender, age, racial-ethnic group, and socioeconomic status. Results indicated a need for local norms for only the low socioeconomic status Mexican-Americans. (Author)

This report on student achievement in Illinois describes and synthesizes the results of six different measures of the achievement of Illinois students. The six tests are: (1) Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress, (2) Decade Study Test, (3) High School and Beyond Test, (4) Scholastic Aptitude Test, (5) American College Test, and (6) National…

This paper discusses a study of at-risk students in two highly contrastive schools, located in different districts, in order to illustrate the comparative perspective on how district and school characteristics might influence the definition of and response to at-risk students. The study is linked with a larger cultural context through an…