This paper draws on mathematics achievement data from Milwaukee middle school students to illustrate the value-added approach to estimating school performance. Value-added indicators differ from traditional attainment indicators such as average test scores in that they are designed to capture the contribution of schools to growth in student…

A survey study was conducted to investigate the nature of students' mathematics-related belief systems. A mathematics-related beliefs questionnaire was developed and administered to 365 Flemish junior high school students to gather data to identify and analyze the different components of students' belief systems. The focus was on the structure of…

One of the valued objectives of education is the enhancement of a positive self-concept, which itself is a mediating variable of other desired outcomes. To facilitate the assessment of this goal, reliable and valid scores on self-concept scales are required for the proper interpretation of related substantive issues. The main purpose of this study…

This reissue of the seminal 1968 study of the origins of mass popular education in 19th-century Massachusetts is considered one of the first radical revisionist interpretations of U.S. educational history. This new edition retains the original text but includes a new introduction by the author. The study looks at the relation between reformer…

The purpose of this study was to translate and validate an Arabic version of the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) for use in Jordan. The LTSI was administered to 450 employees employed by public and private sector organizations operating in Jordan. Principle axis factoring with oblique rotation was used to uncover the underlying structure…

The Discipline Efficacy Scale (DES) was designed to measure personal and general teacher efficacy beliefs about student discipline. A confirmatory factor analysis of the proposed two-factor model was carried out using a sample of 206 junior- and senior-level preservice teacher education students. Goodness of fit measures did not suggest a good fit…

Faculty members at St. Mary's University of Minnesota have been engaged in a process to develop a more student-centered curriculum. Administration and faculty taking the lead in this endeavor have begun to embrace much of the literature in the area of constructivism as a philosophical foundation for guiding this change. The result is the near…

The Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales (MIDAS) instrument was developed to measure eight constructs of intelligence. The 119-item MIDAS provides scores for 26 subscales in addition to the 8 major scales. Using the 26 subscales, a factor structure was developed on half of a U.S. sample of college students (n=834), while the…

The study's specific goals were to adapt conventional flow methodology to define and operationalize young children's cognitive strategies exhibited during their participation in adult-guided musical activities; and develop a valid and functional method of assessing young children's musical cognition "in situ" through systematic and…

Teacher beliefs are instrumental in defining teacher pedagogical and content tasks and for processing information relevant to those tasks. In this study, a Likert-type instrument, Mathematics Beliefs Scales (E. Fennema, T. Carpenter, and M. Loef, 1990), was used to measure the mathematical beliefs of teachers. This instrument was designed with…

The purposes of this study were to test the validity of the item-pair dipolarity assumption, to change the format to avoid bipolar item pairing should the assumption prove untenable, establish a more definitive factor structure and explore its validity by relating it to other personality variables. (Author/RK)

Gumpgookies, which was administered in this study, is a test of motivation to achieve in school. (CB)

Two main factors were identified, one an achievement'' factor and the other a language'' factor. (Author)