This study focused on the roles facilitators and students play in high school distance education classes, how these roles affect student performance, and other factors (such as school organization) which affect facilitator and student performance. Three classrooms from three different high schools, each taking the same nationally-offered distance…

This newsletter introduces the 1994 NAEP U.S. history assessment, which tested a representative sample of 22,000 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students across the United States. This issue presents a context for understanding the U.S. history assessment. The newsletter is divided into the following sections: (1) "The NAEP U.S. History…

This report is a first look at the results of the 1994 NAEP U.S. History Assessment. It presents national findings of 4th-, 8th-, and 12-grade students' overall performance and summary data for the major demographic subpopulations in the United States. Results are reported on a 500-point scale, used to show comparisons and trends over time, and…

The research literature on the preparation of young people for work proves that policy recommendations are based on two false premises--academic skills are good substitutes for occupation-specific skills and increases in job turnover and skill obsolescence rates have caused a decline in the return to occupation-specific training by schools.…

A study was done of minority high school graduates from Seattle, Washington, and how they moved into and through the higher education system. The study compared minority students and a group of white students all of whom were seniors in the Seattle public high schools during the 1982-83 academic year. In the Spring of 1989, 48 postsecondary…

This fact sheet lists problems involved in the use of standardized tests. It is argued that standardized tests are not really fair and helpful evaluation tools because they reward the ability to answer superficial questions quickly and do not measure the ability to think or create in any field. They also assume that all test takers have been…

An item classification scheme developed by A. M. Gallagher (1990) was refined, resulting in a more accurate prediction of sex differences in the mathematical sections of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Differential Item Functioning (DIF) procedures for examinees scoring over 650 indicated that the majority of items favoring males required the…

This paper offers a background of information on children in elementary school in the 1990s and on likely trends in the near future. It focuses particularly on issues relating to students who are at risk for school failure. One section identifies various risk factors that students face when they enter school and estimates the numbers of at-risk…

This report describes a study of the planning, development, and implementation of the first 61 Chapter 1 schoolwide projects established in 1989 in the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) School District, and presents case studies of 6 of those schools. Schools in which 75 percent or more of the students are from low-income families can choose to spend…

This study examined mathematical self-concept of college students and how it may develop differently between men and women. The study used data from a 1985 Cooperative Institutional Research Programs Survey and a follow-up survey in 1989 which included information from over 27,000 college freshmen and incorporates information acquired directly…

The requirement that home schooled students score at or above the 40th percentile on a nationally standardized test runs counter to several widely accepted principles of measurement. A single score should not be used alone in decision making, and there is no evidence that this is a valid use of the test. In addition, the 40th percentile is not an…

This review of research focuses on policies and practices that result in placing students in groups that are more or less homogeneous with respect to academic performance. Recent analysis of data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 provides the largest and best-controlled multi-year study of ability grouping ever conducted…

This practicum was designed to develop an inservice training program for classroom teachers to help them better meet the needs of non-English speaking students, and to help the non-English speaking students acclimate and socialize with other students and to better deal with the problems of a culturally diverse, if not economically diverse…

Chapter 2 Formula funds provide federal aid to states through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 as amended in 1988 by PL 100-297. Funds can support programs for students at risk of failure or dropping out, or students for whom providing an education entails higher than average costs. Funds can also support programs for…

This study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative research designs to analyze and evaluate procedures used in selecting youth for state-supported residential high schools for mathematics and science. Pre-admission and post-admission data were gathered for 742 students in 7 schools. Predictor variables included home school grade point…