Discusses issues related to standardized testing and a national art curriculum. Maintains that cultural diversity among students makes valid and fair assessment difficult. Argues that teachers should be trained in the use of authentic assessment methods. (CFR)

This article describes the Oral and Written Language Scales, an assessment of receptive and expressive language for children and young adults aged 3 to 21. The test assesses overall language skills and specific performance in oral expression, listening comprehension, and written expression. Its administration, standardization, reliability, and…

This article describes the Transition Planning Inventory, a formal assessment and planning tool for use with students with disabilities in individualized educational planning. It assesses skills in employment, daily living, leisure activities, community activities, community participation, health, self-determination, communication, and…

This article describes the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, a general assessment of personal and social sufficiency of individuals from birth through adulthood to determine areas of strength and weakness. The instrument assesses communication, daily living skills, socialization, and motor skills. Its administration, standardization, reliability,…

This article describes the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, a comprehensive measure of achievement for individuals in grades K-12. Eight subtests assess mathematics reasoning, spelling, reading comprehension, numerical operations, listening comprehension, oral expression, and written expression. Its administration, standardization,…

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is a well established tool for formative assessment. CBM has also been used for prediction of state test scores. However, validity coefficients between math-CBM and state tests have been moderate at best (Skiba, Magnusson, Martson, and Erickson, 1986; Martson, 1989; Putnam, 1989). The purpose of the present…

Science and technology are connected to each other and are mutually inspiring. The science-technology curriculum for junior-high school in Israel suggests that teachers integrate these subjects. In addition, this curriculum calls for infusing thinking competencies into the learning subjects and for implementing alternatives in assessment methods…

This article reports the development, validation and use of a survey for assessing students' perceptions of their e-learning environments. The Online Learning Environment Survey (OLES) was administered to 325 students, 131 in Australia and 194 in Hong Kong. The data were analysed to examine 1) the reliability and validity of the survey, 2)…

State and federal mandates for education reform call for increased accountability and the inclusion of students with disabilities in all accountability efforts. In the rush to implement high-stakes education reforms, particularly those involving tests or assessments, the particular needs of students with severe cognitive disabilities are only now…

Despite a body of evidence that curriculum-based measurement of reading (R-CBM) is a valid measure of general reading achievement, some school-based professionals remain unconvinced. At the core of their argument is their experience with word callers, students who purportedly can read fluently, but do not understand what they read. No studies have…

In this article, we examine the construct and criteria validity of student and teacher ratings as indicators of instructional features. As parsimonious measures, student and teacher reports are frequently used to assess aspects of the learning environment. From a methodological perspective, however, both approaches have been questioned. Whereas…

Objective: The belief that children with externalizing disorders have difficulties with self-awareness raises the question of whether children with externalizing disorders are good informants of their own behavior. Method: This study investigates how children with ADHD rate their behaviors compared to children without ADHD on a new rating scale…

The "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education" generated by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL 2000) provides a plausible set of pedagogical goals to guide the construction and implementation of an undergraduate research methods course. We argue that the context of the undergraduate methods…

This study aimed at adapting the Questionnaire Quality of Life in Epilepsy (QOLIE-89 version 1.0: Vickrey et al., 1993), Quality of Life in Epilepsy QoLIE-89 RAND (Santa Monica, CA)] so that it may be used to measure quality of life (QoL) of older adults, healthy or suffering from various chronic illnesses. The participants were 202 older adults…

This edited volume contains 15 chapters. Part one, "Language Teaching, Language Learning, and Literacy," has three chapters: "The Monolingual Teaching and Bilingual Learning of English" (Henry G. Widdowson); "Literacy: The Extension of Languages Through Other Means" (Ellen Bialystok); "Bilingual Processing…