Practical and technical advice is provided for staff responsible for planning evaluations of Educational Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) Chapter 1 migrant programs at the state level. The report is limited to evaluating achievement gains in basic skills; this is, however, acknowledged as only one facet of a comprehensive migrant program…

The current New Jersey high school graduation law requires that students pass a ninth grade test in reading, writing, and mathematics. Equating the writing test from year to year to be sure that passing scores remain identical, regardless of the test form administered, requires developing a scoring technique. A research study was developed based…

Nearly 15,000 students were administered the Alaska Statewide Assessment Test--virtually all fourth and eighth grade students. Preliminary results indicated that eighth graders made substantial improvements in both reading and mathematics performance. Fourth grade scores were basically unchanged since 1983. There was also little change between…

Research was conducted to further investigate the results of an earlier 1985 study (Dwyer, et al.) which found that a moderately externally-paced microcomputer-based instructional program was more effective than either a self-paced or a more aggressive externally-paced condition. Instructional programs (heart parts and verbal labels) were…

Linear and equipercentile equating conversions were developed for two forms of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) quantitative test and the verbal-plus-quantitative test. From a very large sample of students taking the GRE in October 1981, subpopulations were selected with respect to race, sex, field of study, and level of performance (defined…

Research findings on college instruction are discussed in 43 papers from the first Regional Conference on University Teaching. The papers are grouped under three large theme areas: "Teaching, Technology and the Future" (15 papers), "Computer Designed Instruction & Testing" (13 papers), and "Basic Skills: Dealing with Differences" (15 papers). The…

This paper examines how various equating methods are affected by: (1) sampling error; (2) sample characteristics; and (3) characteristics of anchor test items. It reviews empirical studies that investigated the invariance of equating transformations, and it discusses empirical and simulation studies that focus on how the properties of anchor tests…

A prescriptive theory for learning which delivers prescriptions for designing prototypes of instructional materials with different knowledge structures, the Elaboration Theory of Instruction (ETI) is based on important principles and theories of learning and instruction. This paper reports three experiments which tested ETI. The first experiment…

This study was conducted to determine whether the traditional classroom approach to instruction involving the addition and subtraction of number facts (digits 0-6) is more or less effective than the traditional classroom approach plus a commercially-prepared computer game. A pretest-posttest control group design was used with two groups of first…

Part of the Alberta (Canada) Education's "Program of Studies for Elementary Schools, 1978" (amended 1981), this publication presents the curriculum specifications for the grade six language arts achievement test. These curriculum specifications integrate a taxonomy of levels of thinking skills with a set of five communications…

Information on current trends and issues in English instruction, compiled by the directors of six National Council of Teachers of English commissions, is presented in this report, the fifth annual trends and issues report by the commissions. The commissions and their directors are as follows: (1) Commission on Language (James Stalker); (2)…

This edition highlights two topic areas. A new chart summarizes and updates information on state testing requirements for certification and for entry to or exit from teacher education progams. State activity in the area of early childhood education provides the second highlight. Documenting a variety of reforms, this survey also tracks eight…

This report summarizes the activities and findings of a focus group study of teachers' perceptions of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools instructional program in reading language arts and the instructional system in mathematics. Two groups were organized to provide information to the school program planners to help them in revising…

The first statewide direct writing assessment was conducted for grade 8 by the California Assessment Program (CAP) in the spring of 1987. Each student wrote an essay in response to 1 of 15 prompts (writing tasks) representing: (1) an autobiographical incident; (2) a report of information; (3) a solution to a problem; and (4) an evaluation. In all,…

The relationship between teaching and assessment in Ontario (Canada) was studied via analysis of classroom practices, content of assignments and tests, grading practices, and responses to a common marking task of 17 Grade 13 Calculus teachers. Research on means of student assessment procedures for Grade 13 examinations was initiated in 1986. Since…