This teacher's guide is intended to inform the education community of the design of the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program for the 21st Century (LEAP 21) criterion-referenced tests (CRTs). The guide includes the following: an overview of the design of the state tests in English Language Arts (ELA) for grades 4, 8, and 10; sample test items;…

Dimensions of Learning is an instructional model that is based on the premise that five types of thinking are essential to the learning process: (1) positive attitudes and perceptions about learning; (2) thinking involved in acquiring and integrating new learning; (3) thinking in extending and refining knowledge; (4) thinking in using knowledge…

This book is designed to provide future and experienced educators and other professionals with a fundamental understanding of traditional and contemporary perspectives on the assessment of children and youth, aged 3 through 21. It features broad coverage of traditional and contemporary assessment approaches. Individual tests are discussed at…

CareerScope is a career assessment and reporting package in a Windows or Macintosh format. It combines an aptitude battery (APTICOM) with an occupational interest inventory, both developed by the publisher, Vocational Research Institute. CareerScope is self-administered and can be used to accommodate one individual or a group depending on the…

This paper describes a collaborative approach to using general education rubrics as an additional assessment strategy to American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education members who are revising and sustaining their institutional and teacher education assessment programs. Faculty members from a rural, comprehensive private college in…

This book focuses on constructing rubrics that assess students' literacy skills. Nine chapters include: (1) "Using Rubrics to Assess Literacy" (e.g., rubrics to assess authentic literacy and converting rubric scores); (2) "Using Rubrics to Assess Reading Comprehension" (e.g., examining the components of reading comprehension and how to use…

Supplementary to "NAEP 1996 Trends in Academic Progress," this report describes two aspects of writing for which change has been measured since 1984: writing fluency as determined by holistic scoring; and mastery of the conventions of written English as determined by mechanics scoring. The introduction discusses the layout and means of…

Secondary vocational-technical education programs in Mississippi are faced with many challenges resulting from sweeping educational reforms at the national and state levels. Schools and teachers are increasingly being held accountable for providing true learning activities to every student in the classroom. This accountability is measured through…

Secondary vocational-technical education programs in Mississippi are faced with many challenges resulting from sweeping educational reforms at the national and state levels. Schools and teachers are increasingly being held accountable for providing true learning activities to every student in the classroom. This accountability is measured through…

Presents a replication of experiments which found that input practice is better than output practice for comprehension skills, and no worse than output practice for production skills in a second language (Spanish). Findings reveal that these patterns are obscured when the testing time and the morphosyntactic nature of the structure in question…

Study investigated the effectiveness of four instructional strategies on secondary students' argumentative writing, noting how different essay qualities influenced holistic scoring. Researchers found no significant differences in instructional strategy effectiveness or use of holistic scoring. Students' prior knowledge affected their ability to…

This study was conducted to obtain empirical data to inform policy decisions about exempting incoming students from a first-year composition (FYC) course on the basis of Advanced Placement (AP) English exam scores. It examined the effect of avoiding first-year writing on the writing abilities of sophomore undergraduates. Two three-page writing…

One theoretical approach for increasing intrinsic motivation for reading consists of teachers using situational interest to encourage the development of long-term individual interest in reading. The authors investigated that possibility by using stimulating tasks, such as hands-on science observations and experiments, to increase situational…

After providing a brief review of three other approaches to assessment of preschool children (DSM-IV diagnoses, "Zero to Three" diagnoses, and temperament scales), this paper focuses on the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA). The empirically based assessment paradigm provides user-friendly, cost-effective, reliable,…

We have developed an English pronunciation learning system which estimates the intelligibility of Japanese learners' speech and ranks their errors from the viewpoint of improving their intelligibility to native speakers. Error diagnosis is particularly important in self-study since students tend to spend time on aspects of pronunciation that do…