The United States currently spends a good deal more on education per student than most industrialized nations, yet testing shows that achievement has not kept pace with spending. Nevertheless, school administrators continue to press for greater federal spending and claim that reforms cannot be implemented otherwise.

This study investigates middle school mathematics students' views and interpretations of graphical representations as they use graphs to answer algebraic questions--specifically, questions that require them to extrapolate information from graphs. From data gathered in videotaped interviews, students' verbal responses were analyzed as well as any…

This report from the Doing School Choice Right initiative reveals how two markedly different school districts, Milwaukee and Dayton, are confronting the challenges of competition. It explores how the two districts are affected by and respond to the pressures of school choice. Because it relies heavily on district's and school leaders' accounts of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between character traits and academic performance, as measured by grade point average of AFJROTC cadets. The sample consisted of 20 randomly selected male cadets and 20 female cadets enrolled in AFJROTC classes at Sullivan South High School. Data were collected using a questionnaire…

Using unique administrative data on Chicago public high school students and their teachers, we are able to estimate the importance of teachers on student mathematical achievement. We find that teachers are educationally and statistically important. To be sure, sampling variation and other measurement issues can strongly influence estimates of…

This study investigated the predictive validity of the Descriptive Tests of Mathematical Skills (DTMS) and the SAT-Mathematics (SAT-M) tests as placement tools for entering students in a small, liberal arts, historically black institution (HBI) using regression analysis. The placement schema is four-tiered: for a remedial algebra course, college…

The United States has an extensive network of publicly financed and managed schools and provides almost no financial support to private schools. One of the most fundamental justifications for the status quo is the hypothesis that the regulation of private schools cannot adequately ensure that the desired social benefits of schooling will be…

States have taken a variety of approaches in the development of their alternate assessments and the policies and procedures that support them. This has resulted not only in alternate assessments that differ from state to state in their characteristics, but also in variations in the characteristics and percentages of students who are targeted for…

Writing in the workplace is among the understudied business topics in the field of HRD. Yet, the impacts of writing in today's workplace are significant, and organizations making it a priority benefit from it. Furthermore, writing is related to the issue of workplace literacy which is the umbrella term for basic communication skills. This…

There is an extensive theoretical literature that postulates a trade off between child quantity and quality within a family. However, there is little causal evidence that speaks to this theory. Using a rich dataset on the entire population of Norway over an extended period of time, we examine the effects of family size and birth order on the…

This manuscript on instruction in English shows the changes that have come over this subject during the past 40 years particularly, describes the condition in which it now is, and makes suggestions for further study. It finds a good deal of uncertainty in the matter of formal study of grammar. Emphasis varies. Some courses of study enumerate 45…

Score equity assessment was used to evaluate linkings of new SAT® to the current SAT Reasoning Test™. Population invariance across gender groups was studied on the linkage of a new SAT critical reading prototype to a current SAT verbal section, and on the linkage of a new SAT math prototype to a current SAT math section. The results indicated that…

There are a number of more meaningful ways of examining differences in achievement scores than by making comparisons, however complex, simply on the basis of national boundaries. Past methodological schemes may have been analytically convenient, but the results are hardly clear or convincing. (BRR)

Reviews literature and research on child abuse, emphasizing correlation between abuse and exceptionality of the child. States child abuse is not linked with poverty or socioeconomic level; the role of conditions in prompting abuse is hard to assess; a child's special needs may create the stressful environment prompting abuse. (LC)

Reports on a study conducted to assess the influence of sex, size of high school graduating class, high school mathematics background, and attitudes toward mathematics on mathematical competency. Presents study findings based on the characteristics and Beckmann-Beal Mathematical Competency Test scores of 338 precalculus students at 6 community…