The purpose of this study was to examine for the middle grades how students' cognitive reasoning level contributes to the variability of their achievement test performance. While previous investigations have indicated that measures of reasoning development are associated with measures of achievement, few such studies have attempted to control for…

This paper illuminates the physiological, socio-cultural, and linguistic obstacles which occur due to the interaction between American Indian cultures and the Anglo educational system and which make the identification of gifted and talented American Indian children difficult. It demonstrates the need for more culturally appropriate ways of…

This paper reports the findings of an investigation of the effects of school organization and ability grouping on students' academic achievements in Great Britain. Data for the study came from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) conducted by the National Children's Bureau (NCB) of London. The NCDS surveyed virtually every child born in…

This study analyzed existing Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores and selected student background variables to answer the following seven questions about students planning to major in the humanitiess and related social sciences: (1) Have SAT and GRE scores for these students declined? (2) In what ways have…

Four presentations from the 1985 Annual Michigan School Testing Conference on "Assessing Higher Order Skills" are offered in this paper, and the chairman of the First General Session provides an introductory section. The papers individually and collectively address the problem of defining higher order thinking skills. A second major…

Six new forms of Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) were developed. These new forms were equated to a standard reference test, ASVAB 8a, using normative data based on a 1980 weighted probability sample of American youth, ages 18-23. Equating allows the services to report the distributions of examinee ability on a common metric or…

This paper reports findings on the academic and intellectual characteristics of undergraduate students attending two midwestern state universities, and outlines specific learning strategies and instructional strategies to alleviate the academic problems of skill-deficient undergraduates. In the first study, the reading performance of 128 college…

A 1982 study revealed that American Indians comprise .8% of public school students, but only .3% of those participating in gifted programs, whereas respective White figures are 73.3% and 82%. Factors contributing to the inappropriateness of standardized assessment tools for identification of gifted American Indian students are neglect of…

This study examines the effects of academic ability (in average and lower ability students), gender, and teaching methods on students' acquisition of computer skills. Subjects were 247 college students who had completed a computer course using intelligent workstations in any one of six consecutive semesters. A combination of lecture and hands-on…

This issue of "Investigations in Mathematics Education" contains: (1) a review of E. Fischbein's book "The Intuitive Sources of Probabilistic Thinking in Children;" (2) nine abstracts of research studies in mathematics education; (3) a list (by EJ number) of mathematics education research studies reported in the January to…

From March through October of 1986, 44,453 students took the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test (NJCBSPT) at the 30 New Jersey public colleges and 11 participating independent institutions of higher education. Designed to provide data for summary reports to the Board of Higher Education and to help colleges place already admitted…

This report presents results from three research studies that were designed to explore both the definition and the structure of the adaptive behavior construct. The first study investigated the structure of adaptive behavior as a function of age, developmental level, and type of handicap through an exploratory factor analysis of both the…

A competency-based approach to gifted education is presented which recognizes the importance of developing teaching approaches to meet the needs of individual children. The paper begins with a definition of giftedness and talent and a description of parameters in the planning and design of a curriculum for gifted pupils. Four differentiation…

Results of the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test are presented for fall 1984 entering freshmen. The test consists of an essay and four multiple choice sections: reading comprehension, sentence sense, computation, and elementary algebra. New forms of the test are developed each year. A total of 46,465 freshmen at 30 public colleges and…

The purposes of this study were to: (1) examine the psychometric properties of the Ball Aptitude Battery (BAB) on a high school freshman sample; (2) develop BAB norms for high school freshmen; (3) develop and evaluate four memory tests and a vocabulary test appropriate for freshmen; (4) examine level and structure differences for the BAB tests…