A study was done of Atlanta (Georgia) public school teacher morale in May of 1990. About 40 percent of the teaching staff (1,520 teachers) voluntarily completed a 91-item questionnaire that contained subsets of questions from the Maslach Burnout Inventory and three subscales of emotional exhaustion, departmentalization, and personal…

The naturalistic study described in this report was conducted for the purpose of determining the perspectives held by beginning teachers, the decisions based on those perspectives, the factors affecting perspectives and decision making, and implications of the knowledge gained for refining and redesigning teacher preparation and inservice training…

The first part of this paper on the developmental consequences of children's exposure to chronic violence provides background information on the problem of violence. Developmental consequences of exposure to domestic and community violence for children at various developmental levels are briefly outlined. Consequences for children include: (1)…

One educational change that is beginning to take hold is the use of alternative ways of testing and assessment, often referred to as authentic assessment. Advocates of authentic assessment believe that conventional testing is distorting educational goals, while authentic assessment can foster good educational practices. In fact, many educators…

Originally developed for the Department of Defense Schools (DoDDS) system, this learning package on developing thinking skills through literature is designed for teachers who wish to upgrade or expand their teaching skills on their own. The package includes a comprehensive search of the ERIC database; a lecture giving an overview on the topic; the…

A pathological phenomenon repeatedly observed in some families is the most desperate efforts toward the most unpleasable parents made by the most rejected middle-aged children. Counselors working with these families find the daughters compulsively seeking the affection and approval their mothers have historically withheld. The aged and even senile…

An analysis of the use of attenuation (structural or semantic softening of the speech act) and sentence structure in elicited speech acts by normally developing, learning disabled, and developmentally delayed populations is presented. In the normally developing population (1) the development of attenuation strategies is different from structural…

This article aims to reshape the prevailing negative perception of assessment into one of a positive and powerful tool to guide learning, teaching and advocacy. Emphasis is placed on the importance of becoming assessment-literate, developing a balanced assessment system, using assessment results to motivate learners and mold instruction, and…

We describe the item modeling development and evaluation process as applied to a quantitative assessment with high-stakes outcomes. In addition to expediting the item-creation process, a model-based approach may reduce pretesting costs, if the difficulty and discrimination of model-generated items may be predicted to a predefined level of…

Intended for students taking English 30 Grade Diploma Examinations in Alberta, Canada, this writing test booklet contains the composition component of the June 1989 tests. During 2.5 hours, students are required to complete a minor writing assignment in which they give a personal response to William Butler Yeats'"The Fascination of What's…

One way that success in integrating literature into middle school classrooms has been achieved is by the systematic study of different genres of literature. Through a variety of activities, students can be engaged in comparisons, contrasts, and other higher-level thinking skills. Response journals, in which students react to their reading by…

Latent trait measurement theory was used to investigate the measurement characteristics of both parts of a multiple-choice measure of field-independence, the Finding Embedded Figures Test (FEFT). Analysis was based on data provided by 1,528 students enrolled in one of two middle schools located in the southern United States. Of the subjects, 731…

Applying reader response theory, a study explored the responses of 19 pregnant adolescents and teenage mothers to two dissimilar young adult novels, one about teenage pregnancy and one about adolescent alcoholism. Quantitative analysis, using a modified version of the Purves-Rippere (1968) system, and qualitative analysis of written answers to…

The consortium Mini-In-Service Mathematics Project consisted of teachers attending two three-hour graduate classes at each of seven sites in West Virginia. This document reports on the activities of the project and the results of a variety of evaluations done on and about the project. All participants completed a mathematics and a mathematics…

This literature review and annotated bibliography on student evaluations of teacher performance begins by reviewing the issues involved and the results of relevant research. The introductory section indicates that student evaluations of teaching effectiveness are commonly solicited in Ontario postsecondary institutions as diagnostic feedback to…