The College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST) is part of Florida's system of educational accountability. Mandated by state law, the CLAST is an achievement test measuring students' college-level communication and mathematics skills identified by faculties of community colleges and state universities. Since August 1, 1984 students in public…

The College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), mandated by state law, is part of Florida's system of educational accountability. The CLAST is an achievement test measuring students' college-level communication and mathematics skills as identified by faculties of community colleges and state universities. Since August 1, 1984 students in public…

This pack of materials is designed to help students working to improve their basic skills as part of their carpentry and joinery course. An introduction lists relevant core skills units and basic skills standards. The six individual sections of the pack are divided into task sheets and fact sheets. The fact sheets give information and teaching…

This paper compares descriptive information based on analyses of the pilot and live administrations of the Alabama High School Graduation Examination (AHSGE). The AHSGE, a product of decisions made in 1977 and 1984 by the Alabama State Board of Education, is composed of subject tests in reading, mathematics, and language. The pass score for each…

This administrator's summary describes the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP). The TAP battery is designed to provide information about the strengths and weaknesses of the instructional program and about skills performance of individual students in grades 9 through 12. The TAP may be administered at the year's beginning, middle, or end;…

Six item bias detection techniques (distractor analysis, the Mantel-Haenszel procedure, Angoff's delta plot, Angoff's modified delta plot, Stricker's partial correlation index, and direct comparison of item difficulties) were compared for their ability to identify biased items at three stages of test development. The techniques were applied to…

The purpose of this study was to use secondary analysis of an Australian database known as the Second International Science Study (SISS) to examine the role of student, school and home factors in explaining student differences in science achievement, especially on sex differences. Student characteristics investigated in the study included home…

Women have traditionally not entered the fields of science and mathematics. This study examines survey responses of University of Michigan seniors interested in science for factors associated with the attraction away from the sciences among women, and reasons why they are more attracted to other fields. The survey respondents were senior women…

The Mathematics and Science Partnership Project (MSPP) is a 3-year collaborative effort among the U.S. Department of Education, IBM California Educational Partnership Program, California State University in Bakersfield (California), and the Kern High School District in Bakersfield (California) to impact mathematics and science curricula through…

This project explored university science students' career and educational plans and looked for causes of defection from science, with particular interest in possible sources of gender difference in defection rates. A survey of 164 Canadian undergraduate students in mathematics and basic sciences found that: (1) over three fourths of the students…

Relying on estimates of variance explained to assess the practical significance of research findings is now common practice. It is suggested that such estimates can offer an inaccurate picture, often underestimating the practical significance of statistically small effects. As an example, research on employment discrimination indicates that in…

In validating tests for course placement in college, the criterion variable is usually defined in terms of the grade earned in a particular standard course. This study considers the issue of interpreting incomplete (I) and withdrawal (W) grades either as unsuccessful outcomes or as missing data. The effects of either type of interpretation on…

This book is designed to be of interest to anyone working or intending to work with 3- to 6-year-old children. The book draws on the knowledge of staff involved in early childhood education courses at the Institute of Education, University of London, and other experts in early childhood education, integrating research and theory in various subject…

Throughout 1998, the National Education Goals Panel conducted interviews with policymakers in the states that have made top improvement and performance on indicators of progress toward the national education goals. State officials told the story behind the data and what they consider to be the reasons for their success. Their stories are intended…

This paper discusses some of the issues involved and lessons learned in including a formal computer laboratory component in a freshman mathematics course for business administration students at Monmouth University (New Jersey), focusing on both the technical and the pedagogical aspects of the component of the course. The concept is modeled after…