Discussion of high school graduation requirements for students with disabilities focuses on legal and practical issues including graduation standards, minimum competency testing, and termination of services. Recommendations are offered to help school districts establish a process for graduating students with disabilities within the legal framework…

Examines the sociocultural context in Singapore to determine the existence of an examination culture there. Argues that an examination culture has important repercussions for the introduction and implementation of innovative practices into the education system. Examination focuses on the 1991 English-language syllabus and how the introduction of…

A study of 1,568 students in 10 2- and 4-year colleges and universities found that while students' self-reports of academic development and test scores developed from the same test specifications did measure the same constructs, the measures are not necessarily interchangeable. Analyses also produced ambiguous results concerning stability of…

Draw-a-Person (DAP) samples from 108 adolescents and adults with mental retardation were scored using Naglieri's cognitive and emotional disturbance scoring systems. Visual-motor skills emerged as the best predictor of DAP cognitive scores, more predictive than intelligence. Findings suggest caution in using DAP as an index of intelligence or as a…

Examines the process of developing an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) cloze test by computer based on a language corpus. Two such tests developed and pilot-tested in Hong Kong were found to have test items that were not as good as they would have been if designed by a competent human, but better than expected. (Author/MSE)

In the 2000 presidential race, education seems a top priority for Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush. Although both candidates are promising billions of federal-aid dollars to raise standards, many believe they are ignoring factors such as student motivation and funding inequities. (MLH)

The verdict in the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) case undermined the concept of educational equity by equating it with sameness. Testimony was excluded that revealed bureaucratic processes creating new inequities: overemphasis on test preparation and manipulation of students' grade level designations to artificially improve…

Compares three cases in Atlanta, GA, New York state, and Washington, DC, in which advocates fought to have an Afrocentric curriculum implemented in public schools' social studies and history classes. Examines the influences of six local organizational factors on the proposed curricular changes. (CMK)

Explores variations among states in the relationships of students' educational attainment with family backgrounds, eighth-grade course placements, and high school teachers' assessments of students' academic potential. Focuses on whether states' mandatory testing policies are associated with differences in students' attainment as measured by…

Compared results on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills to Texas (TAAS) score changes on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Texas fourth graders did improve significantly more on the NAEP mathematics test than their counterparts nationally, but this gain was smaller than their TAAS gains, and a similar gain was not seen…

Discusses the Haifa (Israel) District Inspectorate's testing of fifth graders to identify at-risk pupils and give them remediation before they enter junior high school. Describes the framework for the remedial sessions. (Author/VWL)

Describes two methods of introducing computer-assisted assessment (CAA) using Question Mark software. The University of Luton uses CAA for summative assessment; Loughborough University uses CAA mainly for formative assessment. Both have central units to provide support and development for staff wishing to use CAA in instruction. Students at each…

Examined the validity of Dulay, Burt, and Krashen's hypothesis that the use of translation as an elicitation technique in foreign or second language (L2) research artificially increases L2 learners' reliance on the mother tongue, and accordingly, the proportion of interference errors. Examined interference errors on two elicitation tasks: an…

Explores ways of measuring implicit and explicit second language (L2) knowledge and examines the relationship between these measures and measures of general language proficiency. Factor analysis revealed a two-factor solution, reflecting a clear distinction between measures that incorporated a time constraint and those that did not. (Author/VWL)

Discusses implications of states' requiring use of high school graduation exams. Finds testing requirements already blocking thousands of students from getting diplomas required for college admission, and complicating colleges' efforts to recruit black and Hispanic students. At the same time college officials praise tests for helping ensure that…