This document historically reviews the development of the gifted and talented program in Delaware's Department of Public Instruction and characterizes gifted and talented students. Eleven program standards have been developed by the state education agency and a state advisory council and were field tested in four school districts. The standards…

The Sabal Palm Elementary School in Miami, Florida, cooperated with Florida International University to develop three innovative language programs: (1) Spanish, employing a modified immersion technique for kindergarten and first and second grades; (2) Latin, emphasizing the Latin origin of English for grades five and six; and (3) Shakespeare's…

This paper summarizes and analyzes data from studies of differential validity and differential prediction for blacks versus whites and females versus males. Forty studies on racial differences and 53 on gender differences were selected from searches of the ERIC, PsychInfo, and Dissertation Abstracts International databases; Buros' Mental…

Information is presented about the grade 12 diploma examinations for Mathematics 30, Biology 30, Chemistry 30, and Physics 30 to be administered in 1988. Included are both the French and English language versions of the document. Topics explained include: (1) general format of the examinations (stating the content, emphasis, and time allotments);…

Phase I of the Test Use Project, begun in 1979, was directed at gaining a representative picture of achievement testing in the nation's public schools. The project was designed to examine testing practices, uses, impacts and costs encompassing a wide range of formal and informal assessment measures. Phase II of the Test Use Project explored the…

In compliance with Section 1 of the South Carolina 1978 Act 631, the following Basic Skills Assessment Program (BSAP) information is reported: (1) the administration of tests for first grade readiness and grades 1, 2, 3, 6, and 8; (2) the development and field-testing of the 11th grade test; (3) the field-testing of mandated basic skills…

Current testing and selection practices in schools and the workplace are examined to describe the experiences of handicapped people and to determine the extent to which testing is a barrier to the full participation of handicapped people in society. The Panel on Testing of Handicapped People dealt in depth with the legal and psychometric issues…

An overview of results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading, science, and mathematics for American students during the 1970's -- ages 9, 13, and 17 -- is presented. Results are for three learning areas commonly accepted as critical to the maintenance of our increasingly technological society. Data on performance have…

A research project was designed to identify factors related to the success or failure of East Carolina University School of Nursing graduates on examinations required for licensure as registered nurses. The data base contained information from the classes of 1979-82 (n=392). It includes scores on the State Board Test Pool Examination (for…

This paper describes and reports results of a program aimed at improving performance of all students, K-12, through a program of sequenced objectives monitored with criterion-referenced tests. Target curriculum areas were mathematics, reading, and language skills. Nationally normed achievement tests were administered in a base year and each year…

Efficient methods of using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyze National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data files are discussed. One error in the NAEP SPSS file is discussed, and another error (which may be system-dependent) is mentioned. In addition, purely mathematical methods are used to address the…

Using the High School and Beyond 1980 to 1982 Longitudinal Study data base, this paper focuses on cognitive growth as evidenced by changing scores on achievement tests of adolescents during their last two years of high school. The analysis had two major phases: (1) a descriptive analysis which provided a variety of cross tabulations of change in…

Tests recently acquired by the Educational Testing Service Test Collection are briefly annotated in this quarterly bulletin. The tests are grouped into these categories: (1) achievement, (2) aptitude, (3) personality, interests, attitudes and opinions, (4) sensory-motor and miscellaneous. Entries of particular interest to those working with…

Thirty-two reports and publications pertaining to national declines in abilities and in test scores are cited, and most are annotated. These publications were issued between 1961 and 1976 and provided evidence considered by the Advisory Panel on the Scholastic Aptitude Test Score Decline. (Author/EVH)

The content of selected major achievement tests is examined for bias in the frequency of references to the male and the female sex. The performance of males and females is contrasted on each item considered, and the relationships between item content and the performance differences is surveyed. The tests used in this study include the Metropolitan…