A study was conducted at Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) to assess the relationship between students' basic skills performance and three outcome measures: retention, graduation, and academic progress. Specifically, the study compared the performance and persistence of White, Black, and Hispanic students while equating for basic skills…

This study examined the relationship and relative importance of selected variables to successful performance of urban community college students on the American College Testing Program (ACT) College Outcome Measures Program (COMP). The importance of age, race, gender, type of degree, program or major category, admissions criteria and ACT…

This document examines the work of Daniel Starch, emphasizing his work in educational psychology and advertising. After earning his doctorate in psychology (1906), Starch attempted to apply the findings of the new science to education and to advertising. This application met with much success. In advertising, he devised new sampling techniques and…

This document contains seventeen presentations delivered at the ninth annual meeting of the Florida Statewide Conference on Institutional Research. Part one contains: (1) "Your Legislative Session--1976"; (2) "Equal Access/Equal Opportunity: Institutions, Students, Politics, and Fairness"; (3) "The Impact of the Equal…

Findings from the Iowa Assessment Project are examined regarding the assessment and use of information on adaptive behavior and sociocultural background in decisions about students with mild mental retardation. Background aspects reviewed include terminology regarding mild retardation; research, litigation, and legislation on the topic during the…

A philosophical and pragmatic critique is offered of the pedagogical dilemmas confronting the educational establishment. It is argued that higher education institutions at present have no clear idea of what a liberal arts education ought to accomplish, what its scope ought to be, and how its goals ought to be reached. The academic community is…

The validity of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) and problems associated with inappropriate norms were investigated in eleven senior high schools in Phoenix, Arizona. CTBS validity was assessed in three ways: (1) correlation between test scores and number of courses taken in that subject; (2) correlation between CTBS scores and…

This report was compiled to serve as a reference on assessments of achievement in pre-college mathematics. Patterns of mathematical assessments are discussed in terms of the history and nature of assessments of achievement, the relationship between assessment and minimum competency testing, and the current status of state assessment programs.…

Traditional, product-oriented testing must be abandoned if instructors in college reading and study skills programs are to effectively evaluate student educational outcomes. Such tests are hardly compatible with the way the brain functions, in that they require precise answers to precisely worded questions which are the product of the test-maker's…

Focusing on the competency based education movement (CBE), this chapter is one of seven sections of a report that examines the assessment of occupational competence. The chapter begins by reviewing the prominent CBE programs, their institutional objectives, and how competencies are identified and assessed. In particular, the degree to which…

Teachers in the Chula Vista Rosebank Title IV Project, Individual Diagnosis and Prescription for a Total School, use these test manuals and corresponding teaching guides to measure and improve reading and mathematics skills of students, kindergarten through junior high school. Parts I and III contain tests and directions for administering the…

The effects of specific testing procedures on learning were studied, using the chunking method of teaching and studying, which involves the learning of small units of information. The size of the unit is related to the student's cognitive processing capacity (CPC)--the amount of material recalled after a brief exposure. Subjects were undergraduate…

THE EFFECTS OF A PROGRAMMED TEXT IN REVIEW ENGLISH CLASSES WERE STUDIED BY COMPARISON OF FINAL EXAMINATION SCORES ACHIEVED BY TWO GROUPS OF 58 STUDENTS WHO HAD BEEN MATCHED ON THE BASIS OF SCORES ON THE ENGLISH SCREENING TEST. THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP RECEIVED INSTRUCTION BY MEANS OF A PROGRAMMED TEXT, AND THE CONTROL GROUP USED A CONVENTIONAL BOOK.…

THE EFFECTS OF VARIATIONS IN EXTERNALLY DIRECTED TEMPO (OPPOSITE OF SELF-PACING) ON PROGRAMED LEARNING PERFORMANCE WERE INVESTIGATED. THIS REPRESENTED THE SECOND IN A SERIES OF THREE STUDIES CONCERNING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PACING MODE AND BEHAVIOR. (REFER TO ACCESSION NUMBERS ED 003 199, ED 003 201, AND ED 003 202 FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON…

For Title I evaluations, it may be appropriate to test out-of-level; that is, to override publisher's recommendations concerning the difficulty, length, and content appropriate for a particular grade. It is seldom necessary, however, to move more than one grade down. If the mean is substantially higher than the median, then some pupils will have…