Describes the efforts of the Maricopa Mathematics Consortium, in Arizona, to develop a comprehensive mathematics curriculum focusing on application-driven materials at the precalculus level. Reviews the resulting three modules of sample course materials, and discusses three phases of field testing used to assess the modules. Summarizes results…

Describes research and development work done by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) for "Sesame Street." Cooperation between producers and researchers is discussed; three mechanisms used to explore new topics and learn more about preschool children are explained; and a case study is presented of how a new geography curriculum was…

Describes Virginia Tech's participation in the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) Assessing the Academic Networked Environment Project to field test measures of the impact of networks and networked information resources on higher education institutions. Topics include student surveys, library surveys, administrative information services,…

Gill-breathing freshwater snails (Family "Pleuroceridae") are ecologically important, abundant in many streams in the United States, and easy to collect and maintain under classroom conditions. These snails can be used in classroom tests to demonstrate effects of pollutants on aquatic organisms. In more advanced classes, students can cage the…

This article describes the development and field test of an instrument, the Views on Science and Education Questionnaire, designed to measure participants' concepts of the nature of science (NOS) and relevant teaching attitudes. The questionnaire includes 15 questions, each followed by several items representing different philosophical positions.…

A field study with 178 candidates for a police promotional examination was conducted to investigate the effects of "untranslated" behavioral checklists on certain psychometric properties of an assessment center. The untranslated checklist used all behavioral responses elicited by the assessment center exercises, not just those that met a…

Effective individualized learning continues to be the primary educational goal of small-rural schools. Three thrusts towards individualized learning--non-graded instruction, an emphasis on basic skills, and socially relevant education--can be enhanced by instructional computing, the use of microcomputers to facilitate learning. However, most…

The premise of this document is that trade instructors and incumbent workers can work together as a writing team to develop test items for vocational education. The development process used by the Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States (V-TECS) is described as follows: (1) identify and validate a task list; (2) conduct task analysis;…

A comprehensive Instrument for Curriculum Evaluation (ICE) was developed to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate curriculum materials. The instrument contains 115 statements for assessing 11 aspects of curriculum: philosophy, needs assessment, theme, goals, learning objectives and standards, scope and sequence, field testing, instructor…

A prototype corporate version of SIGI PLUS a computer-based career guidance system, was developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to serve the career counseling needs of adults in companies. It included a large store of nationally applicable occupational information that could be readily linked online to employer-provided company…

Most roofs are meant to withstand the elements for a period of 20 years; to achieve this goal, however, school officials must believe in a dedicated maintenance program and sell it to their superiors and school boards. Establishment of a school district roof maintenance program is explained. Job qualifications and training methods for an inhouse…

A Piagetian, language-experience approach to the early teaching of reading to normal young and older developmentally delayed preoperational children was developed. The approach was discussed in a specially-developed manual which was field tested by 42 teachers among 390 children in 16 school systems in several states and in Canada. Subjects were…

A 3-week practicum for six Congolese health/nutrition workers focused on designing a field-testing program for nutrition education materials. Using cessation of breastfeeding as the topic, a pretesting workshop was carried out during the last three weeks of November, the first two of which were given over to making arrangements, producing needed…

Conducted to determine optimal system designs for cooperative use of an OCLC installation by small libraries, this study developed a comprehensive planning model by formulating the OCLC system, identifying variables that might affect online cooperative cataloging ventures, and developing techniques to measure them. These activities were integrated…

Intended primarily for use by individuals about to assume responsibility for the implementation of field trials and demonstration projects built around interactive telecommunication systems, this report provides brief descriptions of 20 telemedicine projects, 12 teleconferencing projects, and seven involving two-way applications of cable…