Recent decades have brought to the fore a coalition of writers on education who identify themselves as postmodernists, a designation that encompasses such vaguely allied groups as critical educators, radical educators, feminists, postcolonialists, anti-imperialists, poststructuralists, postpositivists, and neo-Marxists. A common characteristic…

It is sometimes sensible to think of the fundamental unit of test construction as being larger than an individual item. This unit, dubbed the testlet, must pass muster in the same way that items do. One criterion of a good item is the absence of differential item functioning (DIF). The item must function in the same way as all important…

This paper addresses the issue of defining the concept of core curriculum by first examining some of the literature on the subject, discussing why there is resistance to defining "core," citing common uses for the term "core curriculum," and exploring the historical roots of core curriculum. Next, the paper describes eight…

This digest offers guidelines to parents of gifted children which emphasize respecting the child's individuality while providing necessary support. A new definition of giftedness is cited which stresses the asynchronous development of such children's cognitive skills and the resultant qualitatively different inner experience. Early signs of…

This activity guide corresponds to a college television course titled, "Race to Save the Planet," though it is designed to be used independently of or in conjunction with viewing the series. The goal of the guide is to aid teachers in incorporating topics relating to environment in the classroom. The guide is made up of three main…

This paper provides a definition of assessment that is tailored to the unique considerations of the concept and practice of the transition of students with disabilities from school to adult life. Assessment in transition is considered to be the on-going process of obtaining and properly using both person and environment-based assessment…

This study grew out of the discussions of a group of archivists convened in 1989. Although universal in application, the study was prepared particularly for developing countries and is intended for archivists who work with records containing personal information. The publication defines "personal information" and outlines the…

Many organizations and agencies collect data related to postsecondary education. To improve the coordination of data definitions and surveys, guidelines have been prepared to define the best survey practices for data collectors and data providers. The first section of this document, "Best Practices for Data Collectors," covers the…

This Glossary contains an alphabetic list of some 291 terms used in the ERIC Processing Manual (EPM) or in connection with the generation of the ERIC database and the work of the ERIC Clearinghouses and other ERIC contractors. Each term is defined as it is used in the ERIC context. Appended to the Glossary is a list of 203 commonly-appearing…

This report attempts to define the telecommunications requirements and support services needed by mentally retarded users in Sweden. It focuses on population, definitions, and classifications of mental retardation, and implications of mental retardation in daily living. Support services including medical care, habilitation, and education for…

This report explores ramifications of vocational rehabilitation services being provided in independent living programs through tracing the development of disability rights and independent living movements from their inception to the present. Comparisons are drawn between the programmatic approaches of state rehabilitation agencies and independent…

This packet of materials includes several items that relate to early childhood education in Oregon. An information sheet describes the state's vision of comprehensive early childhood education for all children, and provides definitions, assumptions, and guiding principles that relate to that vision. A figure depicts the coordination of services…

This paper considers preliminary issues in the development of quality educational outcome indicators for students with disabilities within the context of current changes in general education and a conceptual model of important educational outcomes and indicators for all children. The approach and development process of the National Center on…

Using some dictionary definitions, one might easily infer that supervision of teaching is a managerial/administrative function closely related to evaluation and control, implying hierarchical connotations. However, Guthrie and Reed (1991) describe teacher supervision as "a function of leadership concerned with improving, enhancing, and reinforcing…

Items of Altemeyer's 1986 version of the "Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale" (RWA Scale) were analyzed as philosophical propositions in an effort to establish each item's suggestive connotation and denotation. The guiding principle of the analysis was the way in which the statements reflected authoritarianism's defining characteristics…