A year nine pupil with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in a residential school was not accessing the curriculum due to distractibility and aggressive behavior. Analysis of data gathered through individual interviews, analysis of daily staff reports, and structured behavioral observation, indicate the student functions more successfully…

Preschool teachers, child care workers, and parents need to work together to identify preschool children with mild handicaps through evaluation processes that include screening, planning of evaluation, and interpretation and communication of evaluation results. Proposes a best practice evaluation model developed by Broward County School District,…

Classroom assessment procedures of 36 teachers in grades 2 to 12 were studied to determine the extent to which they measure students' higher order thinking skills in mathematics, science, social studies, and language arts. A striking finding was the absence of evaluation of comparative and evaluative thinking. (SLD)

Reports on a program developed in Indiana public schools to hold software evaluation workshops that would compare teacher and student evaluations of the same software. The evaluation process is discussed; tutorials, drill and practice programs, simulations, and games are examined; and tests for correlation are described. (21 references) (LRW)

Describes a process for evaluating the effectiveness of formal courses or segments of training instruction, including lessons or modules. Topics discussed include focusing on objectives; objective and test item evaluation; on-the-job training; task levels; transfer of training; presentation evaluation; and evaluation of instructional…

A survey of 365 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University faculty investigated undergraduate grading policies and practices across disciplines. Results reveal patterns in teacher treatment of absolute vs. relative standards, grade recording and averaging, unexcused absences, late work, class participation, and non-achievement-related…

Investigates the institutions in Cheshire, England, where Spanish is taught. The method involves a survey by questionnaire of 16 Comprehensive schools, 3 VI Form Colleges, and 5 Colleges of Further Education. Of the 24 institutions sent questionnaires, 79% were returned and analyzed. Results are provided. (four references) (CK)

Describes the ImpacT study that was conducted in England and Wales to evaluate the effect of information technology (IT) on elementary and secondary school students' achievements in English, geography, math, and science. Research design and methodologies are explained, and results are compared with students not using IT. (Contains 15 references.)…

To explore the effects that changing to performance-based assessment has had on sex differences in science achievement that had been observed with traditional tests, 3 studies involving more than 906 elementary school students compared scores of males and females on performance-based tests. Few gender differences were found. (SLD)

Discusses teacher burnout associated with problems in assessing culturally and linguistically diverse populations. These problems range from lack of understanding of the culture of a given child to knowingly diagnosing children with limited English proficiency. Teachers must adopt creative attitudes that accept all students as unique. (137…

Supports the idea that second language teachers should "teach the test," provided that such tests meet the criteria of authentic assessment. Authentic assessment focuses on constructivist learning and communicative tasks; the integration of teaching, learning, and assessment; quality and coverage of content; and quality and fairness of standards.…

Conversational and narrative language samples were elicited from 16 school-age individuals with mental retardation and 16 typically developing children matched for mental age. Analysis demonstrated that both groups produced more syntactically complex language during narration, whereas they were more talkative during conversation. Results support…

Current issues in the assessment of students with learning disabilities are identified, including use of physiological and neuropsychological measures, discrepancy criteria, curriculum-based measurement, dynamic assessment, performance and portfolio assessment, and assessment of learning disabilities in bilingual and multicultural contexts.…

Describes a task-oriented assessment of two MEDLINE searching systems by medical students, one using Boolean searching on human-indexed thesaurus terms and one using natural language searching on words in the title, abstract, and indexing terms. Highlights include user certainty in answering questions, time needed, and user satisfaction.…

Examines educational services delivery to the entire school and to those who scored below the median on achievement tests in 242 Louisiana elementary schools. Results indicate that mean masking occurs in about 17 percent of schools, most frequently when schools do an above-average job of educating the lowest quartile. (SLD)