This guide provides classroom assessment models and strategies that can be used by teachers in planning for efficient day-to-day assessment of the English Language Arts Common Curriculum Goals and in tracking individual student progress over time. The guide lists individual grade level expectations from the Common Curriculum Goals with possible…

Part of a series designed to provide practical ideas parents can use to help children become readers, this Spanish-language booklet focuses on how to encourage young children to write. The booklet describes the kinds of writing that children do, offers suggestions on how to encourage children to experiment with spelling, and urges parents not to…

The report of the American Jewish Committee's Task Force on Education Policy focuses on the changes that are necessary to improve the American education system, and that go beyond the reforms suggested in the early 1980s. Based on the idea that educating the entire school population is the goal of the "second stage" of the reform…

This study sought to find a way to help children from educationally disadvantaged families to improve their cognitive and language abilities and thus improve their achievement in school. Specifically the study investigated the effectiveness of guided experiences with clay in promoting cognitive, affective, and language growth of educationally…

This guide, resulting from a four-site middle school study of the use of computers and related technology in second language instruction, is presented for the use by middle school language teachers. The guide includes lessons, coded to the state teacher handbook for second language instruction, and management hints, sample lesson plans, and other…

The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 and the Indian Education Act of 1972 have brought Navajo education into a new period, characterized by a return to a more traditional curriculum, within the parameters of the bicultural life ways of the contemporary Navajo. This document addresses the issue of designing educational facilities that contribute…

The staff development workshops for high school science teachers of Limited English Proficient (LEP) Students program are described. The project provided services which involved: creating a resource library, collecting videotaped records of the staff development workshops for future training sessions, disseminating information and materials, and…

This study, based on the Rasch model, used R. M. Smith's (1986) classification of measurement disturbances to assess the Rasch model approach to error control and statistical prediction. Partitioning the error component into a person component, an item-person interaction component, and a random unexplained error component has the net effect of…

A two-year study designed to evaluate an elementary language arts program in the Grande Prairie School District (Edmonton, Alberta) through an assessment of student achievement was conducted from 1983 to 1985. A major focus of the study was the area of listening, and the listening tests and teacher's manuals presented in this document are intended…

The new interactive videodisk systems with augmented audio capabilities have great potential for improving the teaching of foreign languages. At present that potential is unfulfilled because the profession is following a "rear view mirror" approach to media use: first, to fixate current practice; second, to distribute it broadly; and last, to…

This annual statistical survey of the foreign student population of the United States reports data on 386,851 students from 191 nations and places of origin. Part I sets the survey in a worldwide context, with data on foreign student flows worldwide. Part II presents an overview of foreign study in the United States and offers data on leading…

This collection of research papers considers extensions of the Rasch model. In Chapter 1, K. C. Cheung explains how measurement and testing in the classroom can be made more meaningful, particularly through the use of Rasch family item response models. In Chapter 2, K. W. Koon and K. C. Cheung apply the Rasch model in constructing a part-whole…

The focus of federally-funded bilingual education programs has shifted over the past 20 years from serving educationally disadvantaged limited English proficient (LEP) students to serving recent immigrants and identifying alternatives to bilingual education. Since the 1960s, the LEP student population has grown increasingly diverse, illiterate,…

Data collected during the first year of a 3-year study are reported. The study evaluated the effectiveness of a variety of special services provided to approximately 10,000 language-minority limited-English-proficient first- and third-grade students in English-medium classrooms in a national sample of 18 school districts. Services studied are not…

This book, published in 1941, is a collection of articles that emphasize the value of teaching the "tool" or basic skills: reading, elementary mathematics, language arts, "and their subdivisions." The book emphasizes the value of using the environment and experiences of rural children in teaching these subjects. Chapter 1…