In 2006 a new type of tutorial, called Map Meeting, was successfully trialled with novice first year physics students at the University of Sydney, Australia. Subsequently, in first semester 2007 a large-scale experiment was carried out with 262 students who were allocated either to the strongly scaffolding Map Meetings or to the less scaffolding…

Many postsecondary institutions currently administer standardized tests of general college outcomes; more than a quarter of Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) member institutions do so. Using standardized tests for accountability purposes has been contentious mainly because these tests do not measure every important…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act compelled states to design school accountability systems based on annual student assessments. The effect of this federal legislation on the distribution of student achievement is a highly controversial but centrally important question. This study presents evidence on whether NCLB has influenced student…

Despite decades of research and debate, the issue of unequal outcomes continues to be a concern in educational systems worldwide. In England, published data relating to pupils' attainment across ethnic groups and by class indicators has been used to demonstrate continued inequalities in schools. This article attempts to deconstruct the…

This article investigates several questions regarding the impact of different item formats on measurement characteristics. Constructed response (CR) items and multiple choice (MC) items obviously differ in their formats and in the resources needed to score them. As such, they have been the subject of considerable discussion regarding the impact of…

This dissertation is comprised of three essays exploring the performance of students on standardized tests in public schools. Since the passage of the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB) in 2002, public schools have been subject to penalties for poor student achievement. In particular, NCLB requires states to measure reading and math test…

This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of a ninth grade transition program at a suburban high school in Louisiana. Student data were analyzed from two groups of first time freshmen who indicated a need for help in mathematics: one without a transition program and one with a transition program. Academic data included standardized test…

Attempts to fill research gap on testing by obtaining comparisons of deviation scores, at grade levels four, seven, and ten, from the California Test of Mental Maturity, Henmon-Nelson Tests, and Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence tests. Results tabulated. (CJ)

The results of a creative writing survey among sixth grade disadvantaged pupils indicate that conventional test scores help identify given levels of developed skills, and such skills are related to effective writing. (Author/NL)

In a previous study, (ED 038 175) Mississippi children, who were a year younger (3 1/2 to 4 1/2) than Alabama children, had scored higher than the Alabama children on posttesting. This supplementary report gives the results of further investigation of this finding. Explanations may be: (1) the younger children began with higher IQ scores; (2) more…

A study examined whether intercollegiate debating enhances the critical thinking ability of participants and investigated whether users of the two existing styles--National Debate Tournament (NDT) and Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA)--differed significantly from each other and from nondebaters in their critical thinking skills. Four…

In an investigation of the relationship between teacher analytic questioning skill and student performance, 69 preservice teachers were assigned to one of three treatment conditions designed for questioning training: (1) written model, protocol form; (2) written model, transcript form; (3) placebo, control group. Two hundred ninety-five eigth…

This study compared the ability of the ACT Assessment Battery (ACT), the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and six other variables to predict first semester Grade Point Average (GPA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a "highly selective midwestern university". Additional purposes were to determine: (1) the effect of using…