In February 1995, Prince George's Community College (PGCC) conducted a study of all 8,739 students who graduated from the 18 community colleges in Maryland in fiscal year 1994. The study sought to determine outcomes for PGCC graduates with respect to their level of goal achievement, satisfaction with their college, transfer and employment status,…

Standardization methodology was used to analyze omitted responses of Hispanic examinees on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Study or focal groups were 2,956 Mexican-Americans, 3,230 Puerto Ricans, and 278,009 White test-takers. Results indicate that both Mexican-Americans and Puerto Rican students omitted fewer items than White students of comparable…

In contrast to multiple-choice test questions, figural response items call for constructed responses and rely upon figural material, such as illustrations and graphs, as the response medium. Figural response questions in various science domains were created and administered to a sample of 347 fourth, 365 eighth, and 322 twelfth graders. Data were…

This study examined the educational beliefs held by a group of 125 undergraduates in a Korean teacher training institution who were surveyed on the ideal purposes and 11 broad goals of schooling, their perceptions of the real purposes and specific goals of schooling in Korea, and their perceptions of various influences on their beliefs. Findings…

The General Accounting Office examined the relationship between proprietary schools' performance and their reliance on funds provided under Title IV of the Higher Education Act. Data were collected through a confidential mail survey of schools from the five proprietary school accrediting agencies. Responses were obtained from 1,181 (77%) of the…

A study exploring native English-speakers' and advanced Chinese English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners' beliefs about how a face-threatening speech act, refusal, should be expressed is reported. The two major research questions of the study were: how native speakers of English and Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) differ in their…

In recent years, education systems in more than 50 countries have shown an interest in obtaining information on what their students have learned as a result of their educational experiences. It seems likely that the number of countries interested in this sort of information will increase in the future. This book is intended to provide an…

Positing that an optimal way to make expectations and reality match may lie in helping university faculty learn about cultural traits and perceptions of their foreign students, a study used G. Hofstede's dimensions of national culture to assess cross-cultural differences in classroom interaction. The research sample was formed by 2 subsamples: 15…

In 1981, the Puente program was established at California's City College of San Francisco to improve the transfer rates of Chicano/Latino students to senior institutions. The program provides a supportive and stimulating environment to help students build confidence in their writing skills and provides extensive counseling and mentoring services.…

This report provides a statistical profile of enrollment trends, student characteristics, and challenges related to total enrollment and the enrollment of specific groups at New Jersey's Hudson County Community College (HCCC). Data and descriptions of trends are provided on student headcount enrollment for fall 1975-95; student gender, race, and…

The four reports collected in this document describe the characteristics and academic outcomes of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients attending California's Los Rios Community College District as of the end of fall 1996. The first report describes the characteristics of AFDC recipients and legal immigrant AFDC recipients…

The effectiveness of seven Perkins Act-funded single parent/displaced homemaker programs throughout New Jersey in reducing clients' math anxiety was evaluated through a pretest and posttest designed to determine level of math anxiety. During the 1993-94 school year matched pretest and posttest scores were obtained for 98 of the 177 individuals…

Noting that the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress used a variety of innovative assessment approaches, this executive summary discusses a number of issues related to the new reading assessment framework. An introductory section of the executive summary discusses the new framework for reading assessment, the transition in reporting…

A study investigated the effect of the language in which a text is written on the imagery and emotional response of biliterate readers. Subjects were 64 native Mandarin-speaking university students majoring in English in a Chinese university. Subjects read a letter describing a typical trip on a third-class train in either English or Chinese, then…

This digest discusses the use of benchmarking as a strategy for assessing and improving efficiency and productivity of administrative processes and instructional models in colleges and universities. Benchmarking, developed by the Xerox Corporation in the 1980s, is defined as an ongoing, systematic process for measuring and comparing the work…