This report summarizes the activities and findings of the external evaluation of the "Science: It's Elementary" (SIE) program in the period June 2007 through May 2008. The SIE program is managed by ASSET Inc. and overseen by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. SIE is an initiative aimed at improving elementary science instruction…

This paper presents the annual report of the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) for 2008. Eighteen months ago, the National Math and Science Initiative did not exist. Today NMSI is helping lead the country forward in math and science. In just 18 months, NMSI has rolled out the first round of grants and has implemented programs in 14…

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) "Special Education at a Glance," which includes a copy of the "Guide to Planning and Assessing School-Based Special Education Programs," provides in a single document, information about the special education population at each Montgomery County (Maryland) public school, including…

This publication reports the results of the second International Assessment of Educational Progress for science. Twenty countries assessed the mathematics and science achievement of 13-year-old students and 14 countries assessed 9-year-old students in these same subjects. In some cases, participants assessed virtually all age-eligible children in…

The first and second International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement Science Studies examined and compared science achievement in 19 and 26 countries, respectively. This paper considered 10 technical issues that arose in these 2 studies of science education and achievement. The issues discussed were the: (1) need for the…

The 118 tests cited in this bibliography consist of items related to instructional objectives. Assessment of gains is made in terms of mastery of objectives rather than in comparison with group norms. Some of the entries are item banks geared to objectives from which the test administrator selects appropriate items for evaluating the test takers.…

Effects of the positioning of the child in the family and community were studied for 80 Portuguese students, ages 10 to 12 years, of differing race, social class, and gender. Positioning is considered to be a factor that reflects power and control relations in family hierarchical structures, and one that is particularly influenced by family…

Science assessment has been included with mathematics and language assessment on the international level since the 1970s. This paper discusses techniques of assessment that have been utilized to measure science process skills. The first section discusses the Assessment Performance Unit, a British project with the aim of developing innovative…

One factor which limits efforts to increase the number of black health professionals is performance in science courses at the college level. This study is one of several designed to identify factors which lead to success in the sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana, a small, historically black institution in New Orleans. The current…

Politicians, academics, and business and community members all seem to be raising concerns that America is not as globally competitive as it once was. This is due, in part, to the fact that public schools in America are not producing high school graduates with the math, science, and technical skills to succeed in higher education or be employed in…

Two-thirds of schoolchildren in America attend class in states with mediocre (or worse) expectations for what their students should learn. That's just one of the findings of Fordham's The State of State Standards 2006, which evaluates state academic standards. The average state grade is a "C-minus"--the same as six years earlier, even…

Adult education standards are the cornerstone for quality teaching, quality learning, and quality lives. The Arizona Adult Education Standards Initiative (Standards Initiative) represents a proactive effort by Arizona's adult education community to ensure rigor and consistency in program content and student outcomes for adult learners throughout…

This policy brief takes a close look at the ways in which the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)-1995 and TIMSS-1999 data have helped to inform changes in policy and practice as schools, districts, and states respond to the call for improvement in mathematics and science achievement. This policy brief is based primarily on…

The Urban Systemic Initiatives (USI) program is an effort sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that targets large urban school systems with the goal of sustainable implementation of high-quality, standards-based teaching for the purpose of attaining system-wide increases in students' learning of challenging mathematics and science.…

Twelve articles present excerpts from several national reports of countries participating on the Second International Science Study (SISS) of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. The SISS examined science achievement and its correlates in participating countries and studied trends from 1970 through the…