Report on the current trends and issues in American public education involving personal views of state-mandated testing, the 2000 NAEP reading and math assessments, President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" initiative, TIMSS-R Benchmarking Studies, education vouchers, charter schools, and education management organizations. (Contains 52…

To examine the external validity of DSM-IV childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD), 10 children (M = 8.2 yrs) with CDD and 152 gender- and age-matched children with autistic disorder (AD) were compared on 24 variables. The CDD children had a significantly higher rate of epilepsy, significantly less uneven intellectual functioning, and a tendency…

Medical schools have reduced the time allotted to anatomy instruction. Consequently, schools engage students in more independent settings using information and communication technologies (ICT). There has been limited research in the use of video aids, a type of ICT, to enhance anatomy examination performance. The objective of this study is to…

Arguments between response to intervention (RTI) with curriculum-based measurement (CBM) and traditional, individual psychoeducational assessments encourage a false dichotomy between alternatives that are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. This article discusses strengths and weaknesses of both approaches, touches on current legislative…

This study examined the use of rubrics in scoring a performance-based assessment. After receiving a health lesson of ways to have a healthy brain, fifth grade students were given an assignment to illustrate and write a booklet that demonstrated their knowledge of the topic. From students' responses the researchers constructed four sample papers…

How the susceptibility perceptions of diverse health risks are reflected in a variety of commonly used likelihood scales (dichotomous, 5-point, 7-point, 9-point, 11-point, and 100-point scales) was examined. Undergraduates (N=103) were asked to rank 12 health risks in the order of likelihood that each problem would happen to them (direct ranking).…

Scores were compared for two experimental assessment instruments constructed as examples of the techniques used by the Sentence Verification Technique (SVT) of J. M. Royer and others (1979) and the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) of the Michigan Department of Education (1987, 1988) to measure reading comprehension as an interactive…

After an extensive review of relevant research, this paper describes a study concerning the relationship between the American College Test (ACT) and the Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST). Specifically, the study assessed the extent to which ACT scores predict PPST scores. Subjects included 169 Harding University students (42 males and 127…

The adequacy of mean length of utterance (MLU) as a criterion for matching retarded and normally developing children was investigated. Six normally developing and four retarded subjects were matched on MLU. Although matched on MLU, these two groups of children demonstrated both quantitative and qualitative differences in their use of language.…

This literature review summarizes what is currently known about the agreement among six measures of writing skills. Three of these methods involve the application of human judgment in scoring or rating a piece of writing: holistic, analytical, and primary trait scoring. Two methods involve anatomical or taxonomic analysis of a piece of writing:…

The role of money and other types of feedback on motivation to do a task or job has long been of interest to managers in business. To examine Deci's hypothesis concerning the effects of contingent rewards on intrinsic task interest, 42 high school students worked puzzles involving the solution of mazes and anagrams. Competence in task was made…

One of a series of reports on the International Project for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (in Mathmatics).

The biomechanical elements inherent in the running styles of Olympic-level athletes were examined in order to obtain a range of parameter values for specific running velocities. Forty-eight athletes participated in middle and long distance running events that were filmed and later analyzed to determine the relationship between the physical…