This collection of 10 papers aims to provide teachers at all levels with ideas on a number of important aspects of mathematics education. The Report of the Committee on Inquiry into the Teaching of Mathematics (Cockcroft Report) has provoked wide discussion in England, and the papers examine some contemporary issues in school mathematics in light…

The materials presented were developed for use in a series of conferences on testing and instruction sponsored by the National Institute of Education, with the United States Office of Education, the UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation, and a network of research and development agencies. They are intended for use by school practitioners and…

This is the first in a series of annual summaries that will make available detailed profiles of the ethnic, racial, male, and female populations from the Admissions Testing Program (ATP) of the College Board. This report is the most comprehensive of all ATP summary reports: It is based on the records of all high school seniors in the United States…

The book addresses common concerns of parents regarding the emotional needs of gifted children. Chapter I gives an overview of giftedness along with underlying myths and stereotypes that exist about gifted childre. Chapters II through XII focus on specific characteristics, frequently occurring problems, and particular suggestions for modifying…

Testimony was presented on various issues of restoring excellence to education. The following papers are included in this document: (1) "The Neglected Obligation of the Teaching Profession" (Richard Swain); (2) "Instructional Supervision for Excellence in Education" (Ben M. Harris); (3) "Competency Testing: Excellence…

Divided according to grade level, the objectives in this elementary school language arts curriculum guide cover such categories and strands as reading readiness, word analysis, obtaining information, studying, listening, written expression, speaking, literature, and linguistics. Each objective in the guide is coded for the narrower subskills…

Focusing on the State of South Carolina Basic Skills Objectives, this reference guide is a tool for curriculum and instructional development. It is designed for in-service training and teacher use. There are sections for each of the six state reading objectives: Decoding and Word Meaning; Details; Main Idea; Reference Usage; Inference; and…

Sixteen Family Practice faculty members completed ratings on 59 senior medical students after a 6-week primary care clerkship. Each student was rated by seven to ten faculty members and the chief residents who worked with them, resulting in a total of 353 ratings. The rating scale covered: (1) attainment of learning objectives; (2) progress during…

This study investigated the relationship of standardized test scores and locally developed test scores to course placement and academic success in a developmental program. The sample consisted of 281 students who matriculated in the Division of Developmental Studies at a southern university. Eligible students for enrollment in Developmental…

This paper reports on Educational Testing Service research studies investigating the parameters critical to reliability and validity in both the direct and indirect writing ability assessment of higher education applicants. The studies involved: (1) formulating an operational definition of writing competence; (2) designing and pretesting writing…

The goal of test item writing is to create measures of the true achievement dimensions desired, not extraneous abilities or related skills. To encourage university instructors to apply newer test item writing technologies to test construction for course examinations, this paper: (1) sets forth basic principles for quality item writing; (2) reviews…

The results of a study assessing the grammatical instruction needs of developmental English students and students of advanced English as a second language (ESL) at the University of Louisiana are reported. Faculty hypothesized that developmental English and freshman ESL students made many similar grammatical errors, and to test this hypothesis, a…

While many institutions have utilized TOEFL scores for international admissions for many years, a speaking section has never before been a required part of TOEFL until the development of the iBT/Next Generation TOEFL. So institutions will need to determine how to set standards for the speaking section of TOEFL, also known as TOEFL Academic…

Instructors teaching in the online classroom are faced with the unique challenge of creating a personalized relationship in a virtual environment that lacks the traditional outlets for establishing an informal connection with students. While there are various means of facilitating the online student-teacher relationship, faculty Web pages are…

Data derived from the 1970 National Fertility Study (NFS II included post-married women, information on all compositional factors for each respondent, and an 18-item section on sex-role ideology) were used to test the following hypotheses: farm women are more traditional in sex-role ideology than nonfarm women; the higher the sex-role…