This handbook for kindergarten through grade eight provides instructional objectives for student mastery in the basic skills of reading, mathematics, written communication, and oral communication. The section on reading is divided into the following strands: word identification skills; vocabulary skills; comprehension (literal, inferential, and…

This report describes activities of the PLATO Education Group (PEG), the educational research and development arm of the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Staff, funding sources, and an overview are presented for the four projects summarized, along with additional,…

This article arises from a broader study that investigates mathematics teacher learning in relation to teachers' participation in a two-year In-Service Education and Training (INSET) programme, structured to enhance participation in a community of practice, in the context of current South African curriculum change. The broader study focused on…

This report builds on and extends existent research on population invariance to new tests and issues. The authors lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of the use of population invariance measures in a wide variety of practical contexts. The invariance of linear, equipercentile and IRT equating methods are examined using data from five…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of using multidimensional items in a computer adaptive test (CAT) setting which assumes a unidimensional item response theory (IRT) framework. Previous research has suggested that the composite of multidimensional abilities being estimated by a unidimensional IRT model is not constant…

A handbook for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Southern Mississippi is presented. General information is provided on GTA supervision, instructor absences, GTA obligations, the office and supplies, and the university's sexual harassment policy. A section on the first day of class covers: the…

This collection of essays focuses on how Ronald Edmond's work on effective schools and school improvement can affect the education of black children. The book represents a cooperative effort of the Charles D. Moody Research Institute, established as a vehicle for the program services of the National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE), and…

The Scottish Vocational Education Council's National Certificate has its origins in the Scottish Education Department's (SED's) decision to rationalize the provision of certification for non-advanced further education in Scotland under one body. This report presents case studies of assessments of students performed by colleges in Scotland, based…

This competency-based module uses the Ocean County (New Jersey) Vocational-Technical Schools curriculum-infused model for infusing basic skills instruction into vocational education. The model demonstrates the relationship of vocational skills to communication, mathematics, and science. The document begins with a philosophy statement; preface; a…

The 1989 Summer Bilingual Program, funded for its third year by tax levy, served 2,365 limited-English-proficient high school students at 14 sites in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. Designed for the substantial number of students who are over-age for their grade, the program offered the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and bilingual…

This report focuses on the integration of computers in elementary and middle school instruction. Based on interviews and on-site visitations with teachers using computers in conjunction with their regular instruction, seven lessons are described: (1) desktop publishing for grades 4 and 5; (2) interpretive writing for any grade level; (3)…

Noting that skills and knowledge taught in schools have become abstracted from their uses in the world, this paper clarifies some of the implications for the nature of the knowledge that students acquire through a proposal for the retooling of apprenticeship methods for the teaching and learning of cognitive skills. The paper specifically proposes…

Ongoing work toward developing a learning environment that will perform real-time diagnoses of students' difficulties in solving mathematical word problems is described. The learning environment designed consists of a microworld and expert modules. The microworld (or toolbox) is a collection of mouse-driven interfaces that facilitate a transition…

Same-year and same-grade comparisons were made of a matched sample of students who had been retained in kindergarten for a second year and who had been promoted after 1 year from kindergarten within the Pasco County (Florida) School System. Retained subjects (n=34) consisted of kindergarten students enrolled in the system's developmental…

Evaluations of compensatory education programs provided under Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) indicate that the traditional provision of a less challenging curriculum, limited achievement goals, and emphasis on pull-out programs for compensatory instruction actually hamper the ability of low-achieving students…