This document presents papers from a conference called in 1983 to discuss the possible effects of the Onmibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 on the enforcement of civil rights laws affecting the education of black children, and to chart specific recommendations to guide the work of the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI).…

In this study, structural equation modeling is applied to examine the determinants of students' satisfaction and their perceived learning outcomes in the context of university online courses. Independent variables included in the study are course structure, instructor feedback, self-motivation, learning style, interaction, and instructor…

This paper examines the usage of testing instruments to identify the language and dialect dominance of children. In order not to misuse language assessment tests, a careful distinction must be made between the terms "language proficiency,""language preference," and "relative language proficiency." Differences in the several types of language…

This report of the evaluation of the Office of Instructional Resources Teaching Center at the University of Florida describes an approach to the problem of assessing an instructional program developed for students who do not meet the admission requirements of the state university system. The program evaluation design not only provides a model to…

Problems in the use of pupil achievement measures for evaluating teachers, schools or systems are reviewed, with the conclusion that they are disabling. The following reasons are cited: (1) What the pupil brings to the classroom in terms of ability, previous knowledge, home and peer influence, motivation, and other influences is clearly very…

Most of the research on the assessment of the intelligence of Latinos in the United States appears to be based on some possibly erroneous or at least dubious assumptions. Among these are the following: (1) the assumption of bilinguality; (2) the assumption of equal proficiency in the English language; (3) the assumption of the equivalence of…

There is no conclusive evidence as yet that television has provided sufficient cause for the decline in scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and other measures of academic achievement or aptitude, although it may be one of several elements in a complex causal system. The major studies show that television viewing, after the early school years,…

Identifying the effects of the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program on the development of children requires that a broad array of data be analyzed. In studying the effects of the program, the evaluation unit is interested in determining whether there is an overall effect, and whether children of different ages and different levels…

This study examined the effectiveness of an intervention program for culturally deprived preschoolers living in a rural area. The subjects, 29 children between the ages of 3 years 10 months and 5 years 3 months, were administered a kindergarten readiness test and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test at the beginning of the school year and again at…

This booklet describes the test used by the federal government to determine oral proficiency in a foreign language. The test is essentially an oral interview, conducted by two testers, and lasting from 15 to 30 minutes, although the format can vary. Proficiency levels range from 0 (for no practical speaking proficiency) to 5 (for speaking…

This book is a study of civil cases, filed in court after 1976, involving students in elementary and high schools. The number of cases comes to 1,632, of which 769 are concerned with special education, 290 with disciplinary matters, and 248 with sports. The remaining cases deal with racial and sex discrimination, freedom of religion, establishment…

This volume of the "TESOL Newsletter" contains a number of articles of general information to teachers including articles on the following topics: teacher training and evaluation; an overview of English as a second language (ESL) teaching today and thoughts about its future; teacher certification; teaching methods; an excerpt from a longer poem on…

The main objective of this paper is to examine the issue of matching the school curriculum with the needs of students, without the negative effects of testing. The paper next discusses curricular incompatibilities. It is only by carefully designing, implementing, and evaluating instructional programs that the negative effects of ability grouping,…

A review of the literature on the effects upon student writing performance of variations in essay examination topics reveals that such research is sparce and that most of it has been done in the past 5 years. The review, which was conducted as part of a project to develop the writing test portion of the Florida Teacher Certification Examination,…

Intended to help Arkansas schools implement its 1980 State Basic Skills Improvement Plan, this booklet identifies basic skills to be measured by the state and makes suggestions for incorporating these skills into the curriculum. The first section explains the Educational Assessment Act of 1979 establishing a statewide basic skills assessment…