Public school enrollment is increasing, especially among minority students. Preschool attendance is up. The number of elementary schools has lagged behind enrollment and school size. Teacher numbers and salaries have risen since the 1980s. Local school revenues are surpassing state government revenues. The national per pupil expenditure rate is…

The equating of reasonably parallel forms of College Board Achievement Tests in biology, chemistry, mathematics level II, American history and social studies, and French is discussed. Results of the following five equating methods are compared: (1) Tucker; (2) Levine equally reliable; (3) Levine unequally reliable; (4) frequency estimation…

In December 1990, faculty members of the Greenville Technical College (GTC) Physical Sciences Department met to develop methods for improving student achievement and preparedness in the physical sciences. Given the variety of student preparedness levels and lack of data on student backgrounds, the faculty agreed that student achievement and…

One potential approach to the authentic assessment of what students know and can do in science is concept mapping. A concept map is a graph consisting of nodes representing concepts and labeled lines denoting the relation between a pair of nodes (concepts). The external concept map constructed by the student is interpreted as representing…

Evidence from the research literature suggests that a variety of cognitive factors are responsible for chemistry achievement. This investigation examined the role that four cognitive factors, namely, prior knowledge, formal reasoning ability, memory capacity and field independence/dependence, play on achievement in chemistry as measured by tests…

A group of scientists and science educators at Washington State University has developed and pilot tested an integrated physical science program designed for preservice elementary school teachers. This document includes the syllabus and class materials for the Astronomy block of the physical science courses developed by the group. Included are…

A group of scientists and science educators has developed and pilot tested an integrated physical science program designed for preservice elementary school teachers. This document includes the syllabus and class materials for the Physics block of the physical science courses developed by the group. Included are diagrams, lecture notes, homework…

A group of scientists and science educators of Washington State University has developed and pilot tested an integrated physical science program designed for preservice elementary school teachers. This document includes the syllabus and class materials for the Chemistry block of the physical science courses developed by the group. Included are…

A group of scientists and science educators at Washington State University has developed and pilot tested an integrated physical science program designed for preservice elementary school teachers. This document includes the syllabus and class materials for the Geology block of the physical science courses developed by the group. Included are…

The purposes of this study were to: (1) assess the present level of scientific literacy of students in twelve public school systems in Georgia on an abbreviated form of the "National Assessment of Educational Progress Science Test"; (2) compare the performance of these students on specific test items with the performance of…

Outlines a method to write multiple (four) versions of each examination. Reviews some advantages and disadvantages of multiple-choice and open-ended problems. Considers the writing and grading techniques used. Reports that the examination met the consistency requirement and received a good evaluation from students. (YP)

This report describes a program for improving the retention of science concepts and motivation through the use of technology. The targeted population consisted of seventh grade students in a suburb of a large Midwestern city. The problem, due to lack of access to technology, was documented through student surveys, teacher observation, previous…

This classroom assessment tool for grades 4-6 offers teachers a method to quickly identify the needs of migrant, language-different, and mobile students in language arts, mathematics, and science in relation to national content standards. The Snapshot System asks the student to perform a series of tasks that are keyed to content standards and…

Recent studies show that national control of K-12 curriculum yields important payoffs in terms of greater curricular coherence and, as a result, higher test performance on international tests such as those used in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. This paper examines the connection between national control of curriculum and…

A study explores the concurrent and longitudinal effects of parenting practice on children's academic achievement in 2,247 African American families using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999. Results show that parental expectations of children's highest educational attainment and parental beliefs in…