This report presents findings from the second year of a multi-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program and background information about the design and implementation of the District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE) program. The TEEG and DATE programs operating in Texas make up the largest state-funded performance…

The purpose of this project was to gain a better understanding of dimensions of trust and inter-relationships between those dimensions during the adolescent years. Drawing from survey data collected at the beginning and end of a semester in eighty middle- and high-school social studies classes, relationships were assessed between: social trust,…

Six item bias detection techniques (distractor analysis, the Mantel-Haenszel procedure, Angoff's delta plot, Angoff's modified delta plot, Stricker's partial correlation index, and direct comparison of item difficulties) were compared for their ability to identify biased items at three stages of test development. The techniques were applied to…

The purpose of this study was to use secondary analysis of an Australian database known as the Second International Science Study (SISS) to examine the role of student, school and home factors in explaining student differences in science achievement, especially on sex differences. Student characteristics investigated in the study included home…

Researchers have used children's self-reports to investigate the conditions under which children seek and give help. Little attention has been given to examining the predictive value of such measures, even though investigators in other domains have found discrepancies between self-reports and observed behavior. Two studies were conducted in which…

The purpose of this study was to examine the differential effects of computer conferencing on expository writing for undergraduate students (n=109) of seven intelligence types (linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal). Students were assigned to four treatment groups that provided…

To answer several questions about the Ohio statewide high school proficiency testing program, correlations of student performance on the ninth-grade proficiency test with other measures of reading and mathematics were studied for approximately 4,600 students in the Cleveland (Ohio) City School District. The performance of students from higher…

The developmental pattern in the relationships among mothers' beliefs about structure, autonomy, control, and intelligence was studied, addressing: (1) how mothers' scaffolding beliefs and conceptions of intelligence are related; (2) the relationship of these maternal beliefs to children's age and achievement; and (3) the relationship between…

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the cognitive styles of 144 education majors over a 2-to-3-year period culminating in the internship experience. The hypothesis was that scores on the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) following the internship would be more field-independent, and the intent was to document the influence of…

The effects of innovation on leadership abilities have not been widely investigated. Although diffusion of innovation theory has existed for some time, there is a need for more research detailing the relationship between innovation and transformational leadership. In a survey of organizational members (N = 294), innovation was significantly…

This study examined scores from 133,906 operationally scored Test of English as a Foreign Language™ (TOEFL®) essays to determine whether the choice of composition medium has any impact on score quality for subgroups of test-takers. Results of analyses demonstrate that (a) scores assigned to word-processed essays are slightly more reliable than…

The process of revising and validating two English language tests used by the United States armed forces in hiring foreign nationals overseas is described. Development of the item banks and classification of items are outlined, and field testing in the United States and overseas is described. The tests were the basic and intermediate level…

This study was designed to explore the effect of selected test and background variables on the pooled within-school relationship between Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores and first year grade average (FYA), and to assess the potential role of selected Test of English as a Foreign Language-related variables as supplemental predictors…

Information is provided on the characteristics of students attending the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) and their general education and liberal arts knowledge. The first sections of the report provide information on the development and administration of the General Academic Assessment (GAA), an instrument containing representative items in the…

This research, conducted for California State Department of Education, is one component of a feasibility study focusing on ways to make the testing process more efficient by application of multi-purpose tests (MPT). MPT are designed, administered and scored to serve more than one purpose and to consolidate and unify testing programs as a partial…