Discusses the problems of a live Internet demonstration and describes guidelines for making a canned presentation. Highlights include organization, slides, paper handouts, presentation software, screen images, electronic text and graphics, local copies of home pages, editing, exploring services, and testing performance. (AEF)

Professionals and 16 mothers of disabled infants/toddlers completed the Evaluation and Programing System-I and the Parent Form Level I, respectively. Results indicated moderate to high correlations between professionals' assessments and mothers' assessments, though mothers tended to rate children higher. (Author/JDD)

Mathematics portfolios need not be limited to problem-solving efforts. When California algebra teacher asked students what portfolio contents would show their effort and learning, they suggested daily notes, personal budget and lottery projects, scale drawing, their best and worst tests, weekly problems, daily class notes, and homework. Students…

Twenty-eight children (ages 5-13) with mental retardation, hyperactivity, and inattentiveness were administered fenfluramine and methylphenidate. Fenfluramine was superior to placebo on the memory task, whereas methylphenidate reduced commission errors on a continuous performance test. Methylphenidate caused shorter response times whereas…

Analysis of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised) profiles of 456 grade 3 students with Intelligence Quotients of 120 and above found subtest scatter, verbal-performance discrepancy, and idiographic variability to be common and normal. Differences were identified in subgroups according to verbal or nonverbal strengths and gender. (DB)

Rather than mandating more preservice coursework or raising standardized test score requirements, states should pursue performance-based teacher licensing by designing a test of literacy and writing skills, alternative training programs, and assessments of teaching performance for novice teachers seeking long-term certification. RAND and ETS…

This study used a performance-based model to investigate the impact of discourse demands on the pattern of morphosyntactic deficits exhibited by 10 children with specific language impairments (SLI). Findings suggest distinct deficit profiles for subgroups of children with SLI differing in receptive language abilities, not evident when syntactic…

Research on two approaches to assessment of second-language performance--second-language acquisition and language testing--is examined and compared with regard to systematic effects on language tests. Findings incidental to a test development project are then presented. It is concluded that a full account of performance testing requires a paradigm…

In computer-based interactive environments meant to support learning, students must bring a wide range of relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities to bear jointly as they solve meaningful problems in a learning domain. To function effectively as an assessment, a computer system must additionally be able to evoke and interpret observable evidence…

Students in Grades 5 and 8 completed a 30-minute writing performance assessment and a writing performance assessment completed over 3 days. Assessments were evaluated on four traits (ideas, organization, conventions, and sentence fluency). A significant interaction was found at Grade 5 between length of time allotted for the assessment and…

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a multisystem genetic disorder characterized by short stature, muscular hypotonia, hyperphagia, obesity, maladaptive behaviour, hypogonadism and partial growth hormone (GH) deficiency (GHD). Severe GHD of other aetiologies has been shown to affect mood and quality of life negatively, and there are reports of…

Background: Contemporary models of working memory suggest that target paradigm (TP) and target density (TD) should interact as influences on error rates derived from continuous performance tests (CPTs). The present study evaluated this hypothesis empirically in a typically developing, ethnically diverse sample of children. The extent to which…

Assessment models support the design of quality performance assessments. Assessment tools are being developed to enable easy and effective application of the models. Based on representations of assessment design knowledge and domain knowledge in ontologies, the tools provide guidance to assessment designers, and through constraint processing check…

In an experiment to test whether gender differences in self-evaluation biases exist, 264 female and 174 male students were used. Participants were placed in mixed-sex groups, ranging from 2-10 people. Test anonymity and non-competitiveness were emphasized to minimize self-presentation concerns. Three different measures of accuracy/bias were…

This document summarizes the work of participants in California's Towards Arts Assessment Project (TAAP). The project participants worked on developing guidelines and plans for arts assessments. The document includes the TAAP participants' performance assessments as illustrations and as guidelines for continuing a dialogue in the feasibility and…