A study compared subjective and objective methods of evaluating college students' second-language communicative competence as expressed in their writing. (MSE)

A survey of 434 students of beginning Spanish at the University of Pittsburgh revealed "indifferent" attitudes toward second language courses (required at the school) and a lack of high school training in culture, literature, and conversation among those who studied Spanish at the high school level. (CB)

Associations between characteristics of dental students and their stress levels are examined, along with the correlation of stress with drug use and health problems. Greater stress was associated with a higher level of Type A behavior and lower level of career commitment. (Author/MLW)

Reports an interview with the director of School Match, a firm that has created a database of information on public and private schools to assist relocated families in identifying the best local schools. The firm's finding that library and media services' expenditures relates most significantly to student achievement is discussed. (CLB)

An etymological comparison of Taiwanese words and their Mandarin equivalents revealed that 30 percent of words found in sampled running texts have different etymons, with a high percentage of same etymons between Taiwanese and Mandarin content words and a lower rate of same etymons between Taiwanese and Mandarin function words. (Author/CB)

Reviews previous research and presents and analyzes data regarding some possible connections between small group oral interaction and language learning. Data show that communicative interaction is far more sensitive and significant to learners' needs and abilities than are other forms of language work. (CB)

Describes how one college developed new skills and attitudes among the general faculty and how these faculty went on to integrate foreign languages into their teaching. The article also details how the program underwent a transition from a federally funded experiment to a regular and popular program at the institution. (CB)

The relationship between reading comprehension and the number and complexity of idea units in a text was examined. The results showed that readers using text-entailed recall strategies gained the most insight into the meaning of text and that recall ability is an important encoding strategy for gaining meaning. (JAZ)

Scores based on the number of correct answers were compared with scores based on dangerous responses to items in the same multiple choice test developed by American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. Results showed construct validity for both sets of scores. However, both scores were redundant when evaluated by correlation coefficient. (Author/JAZ)

Research reported in this paper considered the construct validity of a trial essay administered in 1985-87 Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). The addition of the essay caused the non-science factor observed in previous MCAT research to be more strongly defined. (Author/LMO)

A cross-racial comparison of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) was made with the revised version, the WAIS-R. Three groups of Anglo, Black, and Mexican-American male college students were administered both versions of the WAIS on the same day. Significant differences were found among the racial groups. (Author/LMO)

Feuerstein's mediated learning theory was applied to a deaf population for investigating the cognitive modifiability of this population. The learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD) was employed for determining transfer of learning along cognitive and behavioral dimensions. Results showed that the groups who received examiner mediation…

Two experiments investigate how attributes of peer models influenced achievement behaviors among children who had experienced difficulties learning mathematical skills in school. Children in the single-coping-model, multiple-coping-model, and multiple-mastery-model conditions demonstrated higher self-efficacy, skill, and training performance,…

Two easily computed test statistics are proposed for testing the equality of two correlated proportions when some observations are missing on both responses. The performance of these tests in terms of size and power is compared with other tests by means of Monte Carlo simulations. (Author/BS)

This study collected exploratory data on a group of organizational adjustment variables (procedural, personnel, process, structural, and strategic) among a group of schools and school districts. Results provide a preliminary basis for suggesting that the adaptive organizational behavior of schools and school districts may be influenced by…