Assessing literacy strategies through collected works, reading logs, journal writings, other language activities, and informal testing, this book provides preservice teachers a firm grounding in the theory of literacy portfolios as part of authentic assessment strategies and provides guidelines of creating and using literacy portfolios…

This book aims to introduce teachers and other educational practitioners to the concepts, operating principles, and teaching strategies of the adventure in the classroom (AITC) model. Adventure involves more than equipment, risk taking, or the outdoors. Adventure is a matter of significance, support, stimulation, and satisfaction--characteristics…

A study examined the relationship among instructor socio-communicative style, argumentativeness, and verbal aggressiveness in the college classroom. Participants were 139 undergraduate students enrolled at a small southern university who completed the Assertiveness-Responsiveness Measure (Richmond and McCroskey, 1995), as well as modified versions…

The relationship between basic skills support, dropout rates, retention, and achievement in further education colleges was examined in a study of the 15,579 full-time students who were assessed at the time of their entry into 15 English and 3 Welsh general further education and tertiary colleges. On average, just under one-third of the students…

Until recently, fathers were the hidden parents in research on children's well-being. Research stimulated by the new interest in fathers suggests that fathers' involvement in their children's schools does make a difference in their children's education. Using data from the 1996 National Household Education Survey (NHES:96), this Digest looks at…

Changing views about learning and schooling affect teacher preparation programs. The paper examines how Kentucky's standards for new teachers relate to addressing learner diversity, explaining how the Kentucky Education Reform Act is a model for affecting statewide change, particularly regarding methods of assessment and examination of learner…

This guide explores the multitude of purposes and types of student portfolios as well as practical ideas for implementing them in classrooms. Following an introductory chapter discussing a rationale for portfolio use and the concept of authentic assessment, the first chapter of the guide explores the different purposes portfolios may serve and…

Issues in alternative assessment for accountability purposes are discussed. Most new forms of performance assessment are linked in the literature, but all alternative forms of assessment do not have the same attributes in terms of technical and feasibility criteria. Tradeoffs in the validity of inferences that can be drawn from alternative…

This report discusses the outcomes of a study that investigated the relationship between student scores on the five sub-scales of the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R) and the academic achievement of known groups of gifted achievers and gifted underachievers. The study examined whether gifted achievers and gifted underachievers…

This paper presents four major teacher education reform thrusts in the United States, touching on several important characteristics of the U.S. context for teacher education: the locus of control for education; both private and public control over teacher education; the loss of faith in education; disagreement over whether teacher education needs…

This digest is concerned with the need to develop standards and infrastructure for improving the employment, placement, preparation, and supervision of paraeducators in inclusive general and special education classrooms, Title I, multilingual/English as a Second Language, and early childhood programs. It discusses teacher responsibilities for…

This text offers teachers and education majors practical, step-by-step guidance on how to create and use assessments. It can serve as the textbook for an undergraduate or first graduate course in educational assessment. This third edition focuses more clearly on classroom assessment than the previous editions. Each chapter has been revised with…

School test performance is commonly summarized in terms of the percentage of students at or above a cut score (PAAC) that has been set on a test. Two approaches to estimating the standard errors for school PAACs were examined in this study: conditional standard errors and overall standard errors. The tests used were English language arts and…

Intended for parents of gifted children, this book stresses the importance of positive relationships between parents and teachers as they work to meet children's academic, emotional, and social needs. Individual chapters address the following topics: (1) parenting the gifted child--a wild roller coaster ride; (2) determining whether a child is…

This document is a comprehensive report of the student evaluations completed at Horry-Georgetown Technical College (SC) during the spring 1999 semester. As noted in the document, each degree and certificate program is subject to periodic review, which encompasses student surveys. For this survey, students were asked to respond to Likert-type…