This volume contains six workshop papers, each of which deals with one or more aspects of communicative competence. These papers are primarily reports of certain techniques which have been found successful for teaching and testing the ability to communicate in a foreign language. "Communicative Competence: Safety Tips for Riders on the Latest…

This paper discusses the use of assessment instruments at the preschool level and systematically reviews several measurement instruments used with young children. The first section briefly discusses the selection of educational objectives, consideration of alternative methods of collecting information about children, the selection of a specific…

This document examines the work of Daniel Starch, emphasizing his work in educational psychology and advertising. After earning his doctorate in psychology (1906), Starch attempted to apply the findings of the new science to education and to advertising. This application met with much success. In advertising, he devised new sampling techniques and…

Public Law 94-142 provides safeguards to assure that materials and procedures utilized for the purposes of evaluation and placement of handicapped children be selected and administered so as to avoid racial and cultural discrimination. This publication is designed to provide the educational community with information to assist them in bringing…

This paper discusses some specific issues about testing and relates the discussion to reading teachers and reading instruction. The issues that are discussed include the goals, criteria, and methods of classroom assessment. The paper concludes that teachers need to learn more about the process of assessment in order to use tests effectively, and…

The purpose, development, administration, and scoring of the Educational Research Institute of British Columbia's (ERIBC) English Placement Test (EPT) are described. This test was designed to assist in the placement of entering college students into the appropriate courses of English usage and composition; it was not intended to be a criterion for…

Local norms for the three scores of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT)--reading, spelling, and arithmetic--were developed on the basis of 1,021 children in the age range of 5 through 7 and 83 more children aged 8 through 11 from a suburban school district near Seattle, Washington. In general, the local group was found to be superior to the…

This document contains seventeen presentations delivered at the ninth annual meeting of the Florida Statewide Conference on Institutional Research. Part one contains: (1) "Your Legislative Session--1976"; (2) "Equal Access/Equal Opportunity: Institutions, Students, Politics, and Fairness"; (3) "The Impact of the Equal…

Assessment of the Spanish-speaking bilingual child's language dominance is essential to bilingual education, but to date there is no universally accepted way of doing this. There are many tests on the market which purport to measure language dominance and achievement, and which involve various criteria and methods. This paper describes four tests,…

As an aid in preservice and inservice teacher education, this handbook is intended to produce a vocational instructor who understands the rationale of bilingual education, is sensitive to the special needs of bilingual and limited-English-proficient (LEP) vocational students, and is not afraid to try new teaching techniques. The six chapters,…

The general education component of the curriculum (McGrail Plan) at Nazareth College, Michigan, was evaluated in preparation for a North Central Self-Study. Twenty-five 1980 freshmen and 93 of the 1981 seniors who had completed 4 years of study at the college were administered the American College Testing (ACT) program Objective Test and Activity…

Current knowledge and practice relating to young children's aesthetic development and education are reviewed in this state-of-the-art report. Beginning with a brief section highlighting theoretical problems and approaches to the psychological study of aesthetic response, the review subsequently describes three common strategies used in aesthetic…

The third of a five module series provides teacher educators and preservice teachers with knowledge of the nondiscriminatory testing procedures mandated by P.L. 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) and of assessment issues and practices as they relate to the evaluation of minority students. An initial section offers guidelines…

A study was conducted in selected Michigan elementary schools to determine the extent of implementation of seven Individually Guided Education (IGE) components. IGE is a program featuring individualized instruction of elementary school students and was developed by the Wisconsin Research and Development Center. The principals of fourteen IGE…

The leadership of the foreign language education profession convened to discuss the major issues for that profession in the 1980s. Several papers each were devoted to the following subjects: (1) curriculum and materials, (2) global education, (3) evaluation, (4) research, and (5) teacher education. Brief reaction papers for each subject are…