This report presents the results of Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) students on the North Carolina End-of-Grade (EOG) multiple-choice tests from May and June 2001. The EOG tests have several components, but all are designed to measure student achievement of the knowledge and skills of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for…

In response to the need for internationally comparable student achievement data, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) launched the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA represents a commitment by the members of OECD to monitor the outcomes of education systems in terms of student achievement. This…

The fifth Assessment of Achievement Programme (AAP) survey of students' attainment in English language was carried out in 1998 by two English specialists from Edinburgh University (Scotland) working with the AAP National Coordinator. Samples of students at P4, P7, and S2 were selected to be representative of students in all mainstream schools.…

This booklet contains some examples of the assessment items used in the fifth English language survey of the Assessment of Achievement Programme (AAP). The examples in the booklet are intended to provide teachers with a clear idea of the range of items used in the survey in the hope that they will provide material for personal professional…

This paper investigates the validity of two current approaches for estimating text difficulty at the first-grade level--the Scale for Text Accessibility and Support-Grade 1 (STAS-1) and the Fountas/ Pinnell system--and analyzed student performance in relation to each. Subjects, 105 first graders in two schools, used "little books"--easy to read…

This boxed set contains a wide-range, comprehensive set of tests for measuring reading achievement and related abilities. The tests are administered individually, and norms are provided from age 4 to age 90. Special college/university norms are also provided. It consists of 10 measures. The scores from different combinations of these tests provide…

The study evaluates the influence of time devoted to reading-related classroom experiences on reading achievement for first grade children with lower versus higher IQ scores. Initially, it was anticipated that lower IQ children in classrooms with more time allocated to reading-related activities would make greater gains in word decoding skill than…

This study compares average SAT 9 reading scores of second through fifth grade English-only children in schools using "Open Court" (a program for teaching young children to read) with the scores of comparable schools using non-scripted programs in one very large urban school district in California. Findings show that schools using…

A number of studies have demonstrated the existence of "effective" schools in comparison to other "ineffective" models. To identify the contexts for success, a study examined "teacher instructional" and "school" variables to characterize the complex of factors that might be needed to achieve high levels of…

This book makes a scholarly contribution to the debate about standardized testing in American education by using the methods of discourse analysis to examine not only representative material from reading tests but also children's responses to it. The book is particularly attentive to the role of culture in shaping children's understanding of what…

Research suggests that children who do not read at the end of the first grade fail to achieve in almost every other academic area. Given the high price of not learning to read in first grade, Maine schools are asking: Are children entering first grade able to take advantage of formal literacy instruction? Are they leaving first grade reading and…

The purpose of this study was to examines the relationship between students' core knowledge and their achievement in mathematics and reading on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The study was based on E. D. Hirsch's theory that having a strong foundation of core knowledge in one grade is necessary for growth and the understanding of new and more…

A problem was addressed within the context of the action based research practicum model. The problem was junior high school special education students who read at or below the 10th percentile when compared to age appropriate peers on standardized achievement instruments; and who have had all manner of reading interventions and yet continue to fall…

A study investigated school and classroom factors related to primary-grade reading achievement, using quantitative and descriptive methods. Fourteen schools across the United States with moderate to high numbers of students on subsidized lunch were identified as most, moderately, or least effective based on several measures of reading achievement.…

Including the Spring 1999 reading data from all public elementary schools in Louisiana containing first, second, and third grades, this report provides the results of the analysis of the Developmental Reading Assessment data that measured the reading abilities of all students in Louisiana. Louisiana is committed to improving students' reading…