This book--based on Cooperative Research Project No. 1994 (see ED 010 163)--reports the results of a 5-year study which examined outstanding English programs in 158 primarily metropolitan high schools in 45 states, and identified aspects of these programs which might be emulated or improved. Questionnaires were analyzed on data processing…

The effectiveness of employing educationally advanced inmates as one-to-one basic education tutors for inmate students was evaluated. In conjunction with this evaluation, an experimental study of the most efficient material presentation and testing techniques using this manpower resource was conducted. Three different modes of presenting…

This report is distilled from Rand's findings in previously reported research and from new research. It is addressed to school board members, administrators, and other educational decisionmakers who may be contemplating a performance contracting program. The guide follows the life cycle of a project and identifies the three major phases as…

Investigates, within the context of the question-answer framework of a foreign language oral proficiency test, the interactive nature of spoken discourse between Canadian students and assessors when there is trouble in talk as perceived by the assessors, with a focus on how they accommodate to the students. The study has implications for rater…

Describes how the database software QUEST was used with 10- to 11-year-old students in London by utilizing a multidisciplinary, project-based approach. The collection, collation, and interpretation of data are emphasized, and areas of educational development that benefited are discussed, including language, self responsibility, and hypothesis…

A set of functional-analytic materials, entailing the study and practice of sociostylistic variation, was implemented in three eighth-grade French immersion (FI) classrooms by their respective teachers during French language arts classes over a five-week period. Pre- and posttests indicate that functional-analytic teaching improved FI students'…

Reviews the history and uses of standardized testing, and suggests alternative methods of assessment. States the belief that testing exerts undue pressure on children, provides no useful information on individual children, and limits educational possibilities. Discusses the Association for Childhood Education International position paper which…

To examine how performance-based assessment changed mathematics teaching under conditions of moderate and low-stake assessment, middle school teachers were studied in five districts in Maryland and Maine, with interviews of 82 teachers and administrators. Findings suggest that effects of state testing on teaching may be overrated by both advocates…

Discusses the need to provide specific adaptations in instruction and assessments to students who are deaf or hard of hearing in general education classrooms. It provides a list of adaptations used in general education classrooms and includes adaptations for the environment, input, output, social, behavioral, evaluation, and grading. (CR)

Elementary school students (n=11) were pretested and then given daily formal instruction for 2 weeks in use of past tense and plural noun forms and then posttested. A significant difference was found between these students and control group in detection and correction of noun plural forms, but not in similar test of past tense forms. (49…

Influenced by worldwide globalization forces new structures of control have emerged in Mexico at the school level, and career ladders reward teachers' compliance with testing and training schemes; nevertheless the long-standing institutions of initial teacher education continue to show a strong resistance to change. Increased accountability is…

This paper describes the components of a successful, online, introductory statistics course and shares students' comments and evaluations of each component. Past studies have shown that quality interaction with the professor is lacking in many online courses. While students want a course that is well organized and easy to follow, they also want to…

Under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), every school is subject to the controversial mandates for annual test score gains contained in the federal law. The law represents a profound change in the relationship between the federal government and state and local education agencies regarding who controls education and has direct implications for…

In this article, the authors describe a collaborative effort involving 30 school districts in California's Silicon Valley that are seeking to overcome the ill effects of mandatory high-stakes standardized testing in mathematics. These districts administer, score, and analyze a common set of performance assessments in mathematics in a way that…

The main focus of this paper is an investigation, based partly on the results of a questionnaire circulated to a representative sample of participating primary teachers, of the experiential and holistic education practised by the Pushkin Trust, with particular reference to the impact of its work for children with special educational needs (SEN).…