When the Educational Testing Service became the administrator of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1983, it introduced scales based on item response theory (IRT) as a way of presenting results of the assessment to the general public. Some properties of the scales and their uses are discussed. Initial attempts at presenting…

The study was conducted to assess residence hall student attitudes toward student-athletes at a predominantly white, eastern public institution. A total of 180 students living in traditional residence halls, suites, and apartments were sent the Situational Attitude Scale--Student-Athlete of whom 115 returned usable responses. Results showed that…

The "Web of Life," adapted from the green version of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), has gained a virtual monopoly in Australian upper secondary school biology classrooms since its introduction in 1967. A recent increase in the diversity of student interests, academic abilities, attitudes, and vocational aspirations has…

This study describes and assesses the influence of experience and self-confidence on teachers' reactions to problematic situations. Participants in the study were 303 expert and 136 student teachers. Data were obtained by using the questionnaires, "Situations" and "Sense of Efficacy." As expected, student teachers and expert teachers with a high…

The reasons for recent endeavors to evaluate item bias are discussed, and item bias is defined. Some of the literature regarding the most promising methods of detecting item bias is reviewed. Three classes of methods for detecting item bias are discussed using concrete examples and illustrations. These methods are: (1) latent trait; (2)…

This paper presents a conceptualization of test bias for standardized ability tests which is based on multidimensional, non-parametric, item response theory. An explanation of how individually-biased items can combine through a test score to produce test bias is provided. It is contended that bias, although expressed at the item level, should be…

A method is proposed that increases the accuracies of estimation of the operating characteristics of discrete item responses, especially when the true operating characteristic is represented by a steep curve, and also at the lower and upper ends of the ability distribution where the estimation tends to be inaccurate because of the smaller number…

A composition teacher's suggestion to students to read personal compositions to others and to act on their reactions took on new meaning when the teacher read his own works to a writer's group. The teacher then began to realize the real implications of this method for writing instruction. Student reactions to their classmates' compositions can…

An informal research study was done of faculty men's perspectives concerning the Graduate Core Program in the Graduate School of Professional Studies at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. The purpose of the investigation was to determine how teaching gender-related studies affected the male faculty; what they learned about gender issues…

In research on media depiction of violence against women, two variables that have been identified as important in predicting affective and attributional responses are the sex of the subject and the victim's affective reaction to the outcome of sexual aggression. In most previous research the act of sexual aggression has involved rape. In this…

Teachers need not drop entirely the nonliterary aspects of classroom talk and response to put students back in touch with the aesthetic role of classroom reading. Affect is the "gut reaction" a reader experiences when his or her raw emotions are touched. This first level of response must be acknowledged, even encouraged, before moving on…

The recently proposed self-appraisal model of Type A behavior holds that Type As desire an accurate appraisal of abilities, and respond to uncertainty about abilities with exaggerated attempts to generate diagnostic information. The model also predicts that the major emotional response to uncertainty for Type As is anxiety. A study was conducted…

Performance on standardized figural analogy tests is considered highly predictive of academic success. While information-processing models of analogy solution attribute performance differences to quantitative differences in processing parameters, the problem-solving literature suggests that qualitative differences in problem representation and…

To shift the focus away from the writing instructor as the primary audience for written compositions, these writing assignments address the issue of audience directly. The assignments include the following: (1) select a magazine and analyze its audience; (2) compose a letter to the editor; (3) write an article for the selected magazine about an…

A study explored differences in attitudes and values that two groups of eleventh graders derived from literature. One group was comprised of 25 students from a basic skills class. The second group of 20 students was selected at random from an American literature class. All of the students were enrolled in a New Jersey urban high school. A pretest…