The Cognitive Skills Assessment Battery (CSAB), a school-readiness test, is administered to all public school students at the beginning of Grade 1 in South Carolina. This test is designed to measure a student's readiness to begin the formal school curriculum. The number of beginning first graders tested in 1992 (54,357) represented a decrease from…

This report looks back over a decade and tracks changes in high school course-taking. It partially updates a 1989 report titled "What Americans Study" and includes some information on instructional emphasis in mathematics and on additional topics related to course taking. These topics include differences among gender, racial, and ethnic…

In November 1991 a survey was conducted of all students in Toronto (Ontario, Canada) secondary schools. The initial report gave demographic information about the student population. This report includes subgroup profiles, such as the characteristics of female versus male students, the similarities and differences among racial and ethnic groups,…

By examining educational aspiration, this study uses data on high school senior females to explore the contention that race remains embedded in late 20th-century American culture as a primary qualifier of gender role. The study focuses on a sample of 4,573 black and white female high school seniors in the class of 1980 using data from the national…

In an effort to determine the impact of entry-level writing tests and subsequent remedial writing programs on various student ethnic populations at California's Oxnard College (OC), a study was conducted of 812 first-time students in fall 1989 who were administered the Assessment and Placement Services Exam for Community Colleges (APSECC). Of…

In response to state legislation specifying criteria by which schools should identify elementary school and secondary school students at risk of dropping out, schools in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District reported students who were at risk in 1990-91. The operational definitions for the state criteria for grades 7-12 include age,…

GRE verbal and quantitative scores and undergraduate grade point average were evaluated as predictors of multiple measures of long-term graduate school success. The measures of success were cumulative graduate grade point average and faculty ratings on three student characteristics: mastery of the discipline, professional productivity, and…

More than a dozen statistical models have been developed for the purpose of cognitive diagnosis. These models are supposed to extract a much finer level of information from item responses than traditional unidimensional item response models. In this paper, a general diagnostic model (GDM) was used to analyze a set of simulated sparse data and real…

To ascertain the current status of Holocaust knowledge and attitudes of prospective teachers and to inform the development of a web-based educational resource for teachers of the Holocaust, an exploratory analysis was conducted at a public university in Florida. Data were obtained from prospective teachers (N = 464) who completed a knowledge test,…

The purpose of this 1-day hearing was to assess the level and effects of bias based on gender and race differences affecting standardized tests. The focus was on examining the role of standardized tests with respect to educational and employment opportunities for women and minorities. Testimony or statements from 14 witnesses are presented.…

A healthy economy is the best offense against poverty, but economic growth alone cannot close the wide gap between the poverty rates of minorities and whites. This collection examines the socioeconomic status of racial and ethnic minorities, their experiences with poverty, and the effects of federal social policies toward minority groups from 1787…

The summary report "Statewide Test Results, Summary Report, Spring 1989" provided educators and the general public with information about the Delaware Educational Assessment Program (DEAP) and the performance of Delaware public school students on the Stanford Achievement Test, Eighth Edition (Stanford 8). This appendix disaggregates the…

For more than three decades, the courts have attempted to resolve the effects of desegregation on educational quality and educational access. This report reviews a recent court ruling on the 26-year-old desegregation case, Mapp versus Board of Education, in relation to emerging demographic patterns in the Chattanooga (Tennessee) Public Schools…

A 20-year retrospective study indicates that the Cleveland Scholarship Program (CSP) has been significant in enabling lower income students to complete a college education at rates higher than those reported for the United States as a whole. CSP provides advisors who work individually with financially disadvantaged seniors in all Cleveland (Ohio)…

The testimony presented in this report addresses the effects of recent reforms on the achievement of disadvantaged students, their dropout rates, and their enrollments in vocational education. An evaluation of programs in four large-city school districts revealed that educational reform has been neither a disaster nor a boon for the performance of…