The federal journey into public education has followed a long and winding road. Most educators know that the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is simply the latest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which dates all the way back to 1965. In the years since its initial passage, the ESEA road has taken a number of…

The perspectives of three rural middle school principals as they implement Georgia's A Plus Education Reform Act of 2000 were investigated in this study. A case study approach was used, employing both within case and cross case analyses. Three interviews were conducted with each of the three participants, resulting in a total of nine interviews.…

This study was conducted by members of a site of the California Writing Project in partnership with a large, urban, low-SES school district where 93% of the students speak English as a second language and 69% are designated Limited English Proficient. Over an eight-year period, a relatively stable group of 55 secondary teachers engaged in ongoing…

This paper reports on an independent review of two examinations designed to assess teacher competencies: the Praxis Series and the Content Mastery Examinations for Educators (CMEE). The review was ordered by the Montana Department of Public Education in order to decide which battery of tests would replace the National Teacher Examination (NTE).…

This report provides an overview of bilingual education in the Basque area of Spain over the last 10 years. Since 1982, a government decree established that public education was to be conducted following 1 of 3 models of bilingual education: 1) instruction is basically in Spanish, with Basque taught as a separate course; 2) content instruction is…

This teacher support packet is based on Oregon's Academic Content Standards and Performance Standards which require higher skills of Oregon students at all grade levels. Under these standards, in order to receive a Certificate of Initial Mastery and at benchmark grade levels, students need to achieve a specific score on the statewide assessment…

Parent opinions about standardized tests and performance assessments were examined systematically. Mutually exclusive but randomly equivalent stratified samples from schools participating in a study of performance assessment and control schools were used to measure change in parent opinion over time. Approximately one-third of parents (n=105)…

Multicultural growth in teachers is measured through their level of cultural self-awareness, their emotional response to difference, their mode of cultural interaction, and whether their teaching approach is ethnocentric or multicultural. Overt racial issues in education include racial differences in standardized testing, gifted and remedial…

The relationship between locus of control and academic achievement was studied for 42 adolescent black males identified as at-risk by their teachers. The Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control scale (NS-LOC) for children was used as a measure of locus of control. School grade average and the Stanford Achievement Test (SFAT) battery composite provided…

This study assessed the influence of test anxiety and self-concept, both independently and in combination, on student test performance across four subject matter areas: (1) English; (2) mathematics; (3) reading; and (4) science. Public high school students (N=217) in northern Oklahoma were administered an American College Testing Program (ACT)…

The All-Day Kindergarten (ADK) Program was implemented in the Columbus (Ohio) Public Schools in January 1972 to provide a full day of instruction to prepare underachieving kindergarten pupils for first grade. The ADK is an individualized, language-based program that reinforces the skills, concepts, and educational experiences taught in the regular…

The Full-Day Kindergarten (FDK) Program was implemented in selected Columbus (Ohio) Public Schools to improve students' level of achievement by providing an additional half day of kindergarten. This extra half day gave pupils time to participate in more language enrichment activities and more group learning. Activities were designed to: (1)…

The purpose of this study was to compare the reading achievement of third graders who had attended kindergarten for one year with that of third graders who had been given two years of kindergarten. A review of the literature revealed that the majority of studies in this area showed that the practice of retaining students did not serve the intended…

As part of the American school reform movement, administrators are searching for ways of measuring students' skills and progress within the system. This book focuses on the qualitative assessment possible through the use of student portfolios, particularly at the college level. It begins with a critical examination of multiple-choice, standardized…

As part of its academic testing program, the Des Moines Public Schools administer standardized, norm-referenced achievement tests. The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) is a norm-referenced standardized test battery that is administered to students in grades 3, 4, 6, and 7. In the 1997-98 school year, over 415 (approximately 5%) of the students…