At a reading conference devoted to analysis of the impact of statewide testing of reading in New Jersey, the following nine questions were addressed: How can scores be used by teachers? How should test results be reported to the press and the public? Do state tests replace commercial, normed tests? Is the state test unfair to minorities? How might…

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 article explores the importance of the host culture in the development of international mindedness in the pupils of an international school. It puts forward a model for engagement based on Allport's contact theory and examines the success of one such model resulting from co-operation between the International School of Maastricht and its…

A study of 1,497 nonmetropolitan counties was conducted to test the possible contribution of agricultural chemical use to cancer mortality rates in rural counties. The dependent variables were 20-year age-adjusted mortality rates for 1950 to 1969 for five categories of cancer: genital, urinary, lymphatic, respiratory, and digestive. Because sex…

A study of the characteristics of rural counties that gained or failed to gain young physicians examined location choices of all physicians who graduated from allopathic and osteopathic schools of medicine between 1974 and 1978 and were practicing in a primary care specialty in 2,111 rural counties in 1983. First, the characteristics of counties…

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 report presents the Austin (Texas) Independent School District's 1985 test results on the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS). It was administered to all third, fifth, and ninth grade students and to high school students not meeting ninth grade state-set mastery criteria, the minimum competency requirement for graduation. Results are…

The Austin (Texas) Independent School District (AISD) required that all students who graduated in 1985-86 and previous years have skills in reading and mathematics equivalent to ninth-grade level or above. Special education students who could not be validly tested were exempted from the requirements. Students who had not met the requirements could…

Approximately 60,000 Delaware public school students in grades 1 through 8 and in grade 11 were administered a battery of achievement tests as part of the state-funded Delaware Educational Assessment Program (DEAP) in 1986. This was the second administration of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS), in reading, language arts, and…

Three major purposes of this investigation were: (1) to identify, evaluate, and adapt a standardized instrument that may be used in the evaluation of Spanish-English bilingual preschool programs; (2) to compare the norms based on the standardization sample with those on a local sample; and (3) to identify an index of general development for the…

This paper discusses how to maintain the integrity of national nomative information for achievement tests when the test that is administered has been customized to satisfy local needs and is not a test that has been nationally normed. Alternative procedures for item selection and calibration are examined. (Author/LMO)

Used teacher beliefs and attitudes, principal beliefs and school norms, and teacher efficacy to predict effective teaching in heterogeneous classrooms. Found that the strongest predictors of effective teaching were: (1) the subjective school norm operationalized by the principal's attitudes and beliefs about heterogeneous classroom and report of…

The use of indicators as tools for educational improvement is discussed. National indicators are limited in breadth and depth and are neither sensitive to differences across states nor detailed and specific enough to be useful to states. For indicators to contribute to the goals of local educational improvement, local agencies must define their…

An estimated 44,340 longer term resident households in rural Kentucky were studied to identify the variables that explained changes in household income status between 1974-79. In a nine-county area of south-central Kentucky, rapid employment growth between 1974 and 1979 created new job opportunities, but employment growth did not benefit all…

A brief examination of norms, local and general, with emphasis on the former. The difficulties of using aptitude in counseling are discussed. Some data from the Differential Aptitude Tests is provided. (DLG)