Survey data from 8,594 students in 55 randomly chosen colleges and universities finds that those having passed an AP science exam earn somewhat higher college science grades, but not enough to assume prior mastery. Moreover, half of this performance difference appears to be related to demographics and high school coursework and not to students' AP…

This report describes an inquiry-based Earth systems curriculum and strategies for teaching diverse students, which were embedded in the curriculum. The curriculum was implemented with 5th-grade students with varied linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds in five schools in a large, southeastern U.S., urban school district. At the end…

The purpose of this study was to investigate senior high school students' difficulties predicting the existence of hydrogen bridge bonds between organic molecules, investigate students' difficulties predicting the relative boiling points of simple organic compounds, and develop test questions that enable teachers to quickly get information about…

The 36 tests in this bibliography are physics achievement measures for the secondary level. Several mechanical comprehension tests, which include knowledge of physical laws, are also described, as well as item banks that contain text questions related to physics and physical science. Although there are 2 tests for primary education, the rest of…

Among the 22 tests cited in this bibliography are end-of-course tests, tests of the American Chemical Society, and chemistry item banks. This document is one in a series of topical bibliographies from the Test Collection (TC) at the Educational Testing Service (ETS) containing descriptions of more than 18,000 tests and other measurement devices…

This document is intended for anyone having the responsibility for the policy or the practice of examination and selection systems in physics, whether at the completion stages of secondary education, or the entrance stages of higher education. The book contains 13 chapters written by authors from 11 different countries. Each chapter was written…

In order to assess the level of science education in the pre-high school grades in New York City, citywide science surveys were developed and administered for the second year in May, 1985, at Grades 5 and 8. These instruments were designed to provide school, district, and citywide information about student achievement in the basic science…

As an estimate of probability of readability is discussed within the problem of ensuring that science tests meet the purposes of measuring skills, knowledge and ability of students. The necessity of technical terms is cited while arguing that testing for language should not interfere with tests for knowledge and skills. A review of formulas for…

A set of science exercises annotated for teachers and designed for diagnostic and formative testing are presented with a description of the comprehension testing program. The exercises are meant to develop skills in processing scientific information through critical reading and communication skills. The annotations suggest how teachers may use a…

Print masters for the reproduction of 63 exercises in diagnostic and formative testing of science comprehension skills are provided. Passages from science periodicals and general texts are presented with items to test vocabulary, content and conceptual comprehension. Research questions are included in the program for use in grades 7 through 10.…

A set of 87 science exercises annotated for teachers and designed for diagnostic and formative testing are presented with a description of the purposes of the comprehension testing program. The exercises are meant to develop skills in processing scientific information through critical reading skills development. The annotations suggest how…

Print masters for 87 exercises in diagnostic and formative testing of science comprehension skills are provided for reproduction and test construction. Passages from science periodicals and general science texts are presented with questions testing vocabulary, conceptual, and content comprehension. Research questions are included in the program…

For over 50 years, the overwhelming weight of evidence has been that subjects are able to make use of partial information when responding to multiple-choice items. The subject chooses the alternative which has given rise to the lowest mismatch, except that if this minimum mismatch is larger than some threshold, the question is left unanswered.…

THIS STUDY PROVIDES A PORTFOLIO OF SEVERAL THOUSAND FIELD-TESTED MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST ITEMS COORDINATED WITH THE CHAPTERS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES CURRICULUM STUDY (BSCS) YELLOW VERSION TEXTBOOK. THE ITEMS WERE DEVELOPED BY A TEAM OF HIGH SCHOOL BIOLOGY TEACHERS AND WERE EVALUATED UNDER CLASSROOM CONDITIONS WITH GRADE 10 STUDENTS. A…

These three questionnaires were developed to assess the attitudes of British secondary students toward scientific subjects as taught in their schools. Each questionnaire contains 33 Likert scale items with five choices ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." The subjects of the inventories are: (1) physics, (2)…