Building capacity within schools and districts for continuous improvement is a goal of educators at all levels across the United States of America. An important first step in capacity building is identifying schools' current strengths and weaknesses. Schools can then begin building upon existing strengths to implement improvement initiatives.…

Item parameter estimates vary for a variety of reasons, including estimation error, characteristics of the examinee samples, and context effects (e.g., item location effects, section location effects, etc.). Although we expect variation based on theory, there is reason to believe that observed variation in item parameter estimates exceeds what…

The purpose of this study was to screen for gender-based (female-male) and ethnic-based (Hispanic-White) differential item functioning (DIF) in the 2003 Idaho Standards Achievement Tests of reading, language arts and mathematics at grades 4, 8 and 10. The vendor, the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), assembled the computer-administered…

Recently Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) completed a project to connect the scale of the MEA with NWEA's RIT scale. Six Maine school systems participated in the study, using test information from a group of over 800 students enrolled in fourth and eighth grade who took both the MEA and NWEA reading and mathematics tests in the spring of…

This book creates a vision of online pedagogy based on the author's experience and desire to create a virtual environment that involves students and fosters their deep learning. There are 9 chapters in three parts. Part 1, "Theoretical Implications: Building a Body of Online Pedagogy," includes (1) "The Distance Factor"; (2) "The Optimal Role of…

Part of England's Key Stage 3 National Strategy, this key objectives bank for Year 8 provides information and guidance to help teachers to: translate numerical targets into curricular objectives; focus teaching on those things that will help pupils' progress; and inform assessment tasks. Word level objectives concern complex and unfamiliar words;…

In each sub-section of the "Framework for Teaching English: Years 7, 8 and 9," certain key objectives are identified in boldface print. These objectives are key because they signify skills or understanding which are crucial to pupil's language development. They are challenging for the age group and are important markers of progress. This…

In each sub-section of the "Framework for Teaching English: Years 7, 8 and 9," certain key objectives are identified in boldface print. These objectives are key because they signify skills or understanding which are crucial to pupil's language development. They are challenging for the age group and are important markers of progress. This…

In each sub-section of the "Framework for Teaching English: Years 7, 8 and 9," certain key objectives are identified in boldface print. These objectives are key because they signify skills or understanding which are crucial to pupils' language development. They are challenging for the age group and are important markers of progress. This…

This report discusses the outcomes of a study that investigated the effectiveness of the Preschool and Early Childhood Functional Assessment Scale (PECFAS) Screener, an assessment designed to assist in the early identification of mental health concerns in preschool-aged children. Formed in 1993, the Putting All Communities Together 4 Families…

This paper describes processes undertaken by Central Missouri State University's Department of Curriculum and Instruction to prepare teacher candidates to create Web-based professional portfolios, Central's expectations for content coverage within the electronic portfolios, and evaluation procedures. It also presents data on portfolio construction…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment found that 12th-graders who participated in volunteer service had higher scores than those who did not. Furthermore, 12th-graders who worked 6 to 15 hours a week had higher scores than those who either worked longer hours or did not work at all. (Contains two tables and…

In the late 1990s the Texas Education Agency advocated the transformation of all counseling services into developmental guidance programs. This document describes the process undertaken and the lessons learned when evaluating a small, rural school district in north Texas in order to begin this model transformation. The purpose of the study was to…

This monograph, intended for Maine educators, presents basic information in question-and-answer format on assistive technology (AT) devices and services and the role of AT in delivering appropriate education to children with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. Questions and answers are divided into the following topics: (1)…

The integration of technology into adult literacy promises both exciting and problematic times, especially with regard to curriculum evaluation. Different evaluation approaches have various strengths and weaknesses. A particular strength of the adversarial approach is a well-rounded evaluation with both positives and negatives identified; its main…