Test items, all referencing the same instructional objective, are not equally difficult. This investigation attempts to identify some of the determinants of item difficulty within the context of a first course in educational statistics. Computer generated variations of items were used to provide the data. The results were used to investigate the…

Based on John Rawls' theory of justice as fairness, a nine-item rating scale was developed to serve as a criterion in studies of test item bias. Two principles underlie the scale: (1) Within a defined usage, test items should not affect students so that they are unable to do as well as their abilities would indicate; and (2) within the domain of a…

The study assessed the effect of two stylistic features of a prosocial television program, visual focusing and verbal labeling, on learning and behavior. Forty male and 40 female preschool children viewed one of five versions of a children's quiz show. Camera zooms and verbal labels alone and in combination emphasized sharing in four prosocial…

State Departments of Education are turning to the use of criterion referenced, as opposed to norm referenced, models for statewide assessment. The underlying assumption in this turn of events is that results generated by criterion referenced tests within the statewide assessment context permit the drawing of value inferences about the…

A scheme based on Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives was developed for classifying questions asked in basal reading manuals. A total of 6,988 questions from 144 lesson plans selected from basal readers from four major publishers were analyzed; 2,754 questions were from the 1950-1959 time period, and 4,234 were from the 1966-1975 time…

In recent years, television has received increasing criticism for its portrayal of the female as the passive mother, homemaker, or secretary. Recent content analysis studies of North American television broadcasting support the assertion that women have been stereotyped as second class citizens in a man's world; seldom are they presented as…

This report is the second part of a continuing effort to evaluate the economic content and related teaching strategies of new social studies textbook series used in the elementary grades. The following five textbook series are examined: (1) The World of Mankind (Follett); (2) The Ginn Social Science Series; (3) Our Family of Man (Harper and Row);…

A 15 program instructional television series on career awareness, "Bread and Butterflies" was produced by the Agency for Instructional Television in 1974-75. Designed to be an affective stimulus in the classroom, the series was analyzed to document how women were portrayed and the extent to which stereotyping occurred in the work roles…

The purpose of this study is to present systematic findings concerning bias in TV news coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign and to describe the kinds of coverage that the candidates and parties received during the campaign. News about the election was analyzed from weekday network evening news programs, AP day and night wire coverage, a…

This study examines the portrayal of sex-roles and the representation of males and females in selected preschool level picture books. The analyses include 125 picture books representing the work of 100 authors, randomly selected from a collection of approximately 1,000 picture books available in the children's department of the Mishawaka, Indiana…

Evaluations of 46 items of secondary level instructional materials used in distributive education are presented in the document to assist teachers in their choice of instructional materials for students. The development of an assessment instrument is described. The evaluation was conducted by a task force of distributive education teachers trained…

The problem was a study of the content found in five commonly offered basic business courses in secondary schools to determine whether the subject matter in each course is sufficiently unique to justify the continued offering of the current series of courses or whether the content is so repetitious that further consideration of the consolidation…

The Early Childhood Education Program (ECE) is an attempt to restructure public elementary education in California. One of the requirements of the program is that it be evaluated during its stages of growth rather than upon completion. One report must be submitted to the Department of Education dealing with the degree and success of program…

One facet of the information analysis and dissemination program of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) includes newsletters issued by the ERIC clearinghouses. Seventeen of the 19 clearinghouses operational in 1969 published newsletters; all of the 1969 issues of these newsletters were examined and content analyzed. A great…

During 1972-73 the Diablo Valley Education Project, a joint program of the Center for War/Peace Studies and the Mt. Diablo Unified School District, designed and ran a materials evaluation program of 49 curriculum project materials, 8 simulation games, and 5 multimedia kits dealing with global perspective. The objective of the program was to use…