Points out the need to identify subject characteristics and, whenever possible, to individualize instruction to attain optimum performance. (RB)

This is the first report on the performance indicators adopted by the Illinois Board of Higher Education in February 2003 to assess progress toward the six goals of "The Illinois Commitment." This imitative is a work in progress that will be implemented and refined over multiple years. This first report focuses on the statewide and…

A study was conducted to examine peer effects among 138 undergraduates at Williams College, a highly selective four-year liberal arts school. The study explored whether students would perform better writing about newspaper articles they read and discussed in academically homogeneous or heterogeneous groups of three. In homogeneous groups, all…

Graduates of the service academies operated by the Army, Navy, and Air Force currently make up approximately 18 percent of the officer corps for the nation's armed services. The academies represent the military's most expensive source of new officers. The Department of Defense (DOD) pays the full cost of a student's 4-year education at the…

This report is the third annual accountability report of Connecticut's state system of higher education. The report contains accountability measures for each unit of the system and performance improvement targets on six priority state-level goals. The new reporting structure, inaugurated in this report, has a three-level structure: 12 state-level…

Judgmental standard setting methods, such as the W. H. Angoff (1971) method, use item performance estimates as the basis for determining the minimum passing score (MPS). Therefore, the accuracy of these item performance estimates is crucial to the validity of the resulting MPS. Recent researchers, (L. A. Shephard 1994; J. Impara, 1997) have called…

In this study, researchers investigated whether school leaders who were members of minority groups draw on specific skills in order to succeed in administrative positions. Interviews with five California school superintendents (three Hispanic and two African American) examined factors for success in their role as superintendent of an urban public…

Prior research has shown that test takers use a variety of strategies when taking passage-based reading comprehension tests. The specific effects that these alternative strategies have on actual examinee test performance are largely unknown. Evidence suggesting that performance differences exist across testing conditions would imply that the…

This investigation, which was part of a larger dissertation study, examined high-level performance in groups of people with developmental disabilities and the instruction that facilitated such performance. Specifically, it focused on those aspects of instruction that appeared to be particularly effective in eliciting a high level of performance in…

How the relationship between test-taking motivation and performance might depend on ability was studied with college students taking a science (n=249) or social studies (n=473) test that had no academic consequences. Students taking these tests are told that their responses provide important information for evaluating the university's programs but…

Judgmental standard setting approaches rely on the perceptions of experts about examinee performance on a test. Traditional standard setting methods ask panelists to estimate how well a randomly selected hypothetical examinee who is representative of a well-defined target group, usually a minimally competent candidate (MCC), will perform on each…

NAEP results further confirm that "effective citizenship" is different for Black and non-Black populations. (Author) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Results (Interpretation).

The rationale for a performanced- based instructional theory has arisen from significant advances during the past several years in instructional psychology. Four major areas of concern are: analysis of subject-matter content in terms of performance competencies, diagnosis of pre-instructional behavior, formulation of an instructional…

Study data indicated that a combination of awareness and reinforcement was more effective in increasing the emission of target statements than either variable alone. (Author)

The authors report on an experiment whose purpose was to identify instructional treatments that reduce the negative effects of intrusions created by recitation for learners who are debilitators. (Author)