In this technical report, the authors describe the development alternate forms of Word and Passage Reading Fluency measures as part of a comprehensive progress monitoring literacy assessment system developed in 2006 for use with students in Kindergarten through fourth grade. They begin with a brief overview of the two conceptual frameworks…

This study drew on four cycles of longitudinal data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth to examine the academic and behavioural trajectories of youth between 10 and 15 years of age as a function of maternal age at childbearing. The analyses controlled for several family characteristics and examined the mediating…

An Internet tool for monitoring, personalized feedback and referral was developed to support routine adolescent preventive care and was compared with usual practice using paper and pencil (P&P). A total of 1071 students (average age 15 years) from seven secondary schools were randomly assigned to the Internet or P&P group. The Internet group…

For the majority of community-college professors, teaching is the most important part of their jobs, and it is not easy. Community-college students are a diverse bunch, but often face a particular set of challenges. Many entering students are not prepared for college-level work. While some students plan to transfer to competitive four-year…

In this journal issue, the authors of the focus articles have provided a suite of very stimulating and thoughtful articles. The overarching purpose of this research is to explore the application of principles derived from the view of validity proposed by Kane (2004) to their research on issues related to the measurement of mathematical knowledge…

Academic writing competence comprises attitudes, knowledge, skills, and strategies that enable one to produce writing in accordance with the expectations of the academic discourse community. This paper introduces an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing course developed to help students from China acquire an adequate level of academic…

Many teachers today use Learning Management Systems (LMS), several of which are open-source. Specific examples are Claroline and Moodle. However, they are not specifically designed for language learning, and hence not entirely suitable. In this article, I will compare two uses of the Claroline LMS available at Louvain-la-Neuve within the framework…

The aim of this paper is to summarise how pronunciation feedback on the phoneme level should be given in computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) in order to be effective. The study contains a literature survey of feedback in the language classroom, interviews with language teachers and their students about their attitudes towards…

This study offers an alternative to traditional notions of scaffolding for reading comprehension by tracing the evolution of a fifth-grade small group literature conversation in which the teacher sought to displace himself as "primary knower" (Berry, 1981) in the conversation. The study examines how the teacher shared evaluation with his…

An emerging literature suggests that maternal distress during the prenatal and perinatal period may adversely affect offspring development. The association between maternal stress and emotional status in the perinatal period (defined as 1 month after birth) and adjustment of first-grade children was examined in 948 mother-child dyads from the…

This report describes three exploratory studies of the performance of males and females on the multiple-choice and constructed-response sections of four Advanced Placement Examinations: United States History, Biology, Chemistry, and English Language and Composition. Analyses were carried out for each racial or ethnic group with a sample size of at…

Encouraging inquiry into more reflective practice, this book invites English teachers to examine their ways of thinking, their relationship to the subject of English, their standards for good teaching, their place in the professional community, and their attitude toward time. The book offers guidelines for: helping students choose topics that are…

This paper reports on a study investigating teacher and student attitudes toward grade retention. Questionnaires were completed by elementary, middle, and high school teachers (N=37), and high school students (N=62). The student population was organized into two groups: (1) grade repeaters; and (2) a control group composed of an equal number of…

A new free-response item type for mathematics tests is described. The item type, referred to as the Student-Produced Response (SPR), was first introduced into the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in 1993 and into the Scholastic Aptitude Test in 1994. Students solve a problem and record the answer by…

In recent years, a controversy has arisen about the advisability of allowing examinees to review their test items and possibly change answers. Arguments for and against allowing item review are discussed, and issues that a test designer should consider when designing a Computerized Adaptive Test (CAT) are identified. Most CATs do not allow…