Discusses new approaches in assessment development and describes two examples of English-as-a-Second-Language assessment recently developed in Australia. The article places these approaches within the context of state responses to linguistic and cultural diversity and demonstrates the implications of the differences between them. (85 references)…

Outlines 10 areas requiring teacher leadership in schools; discusses benefits for students, teachers, the school, and the principal; and lists impediments (workload, time, testing constraints, colleagues' disapprobation, and unsupportive principals). Determined, goal-driven teachers have the power to unlock one another's leadership potential and…

Tests should be used by educators to help students of different backgrounds and abilities achieve their full potential. The goals of guaranteeing excellence via promotion of high academic standards and ensuring equal educational opportunities are inseparable, mutually dependent goals. State reform efforts and fairness issues are examined. (MLH)

Investigated the effects of writing systems on Chinese subjects' decoding strategies in both Chinese and English. Results suggest that both writing systems and learning environment are significant factors to subjects' application of graphic, phonological, or semantic strategies in decoding Chinese and English words. (Author/VWL)

An exemplary teacher who perfected portfolio writing techniques with his seventh-graders fears that abandoning KIRIS (Kentucky Instructional Results Information System) for a more conventional testing system will discourage students' riskier ventures. Talented teachers must balance teaching writing as an artistic process with meeting concrete…

Analysis of students' mean scores on two internal medicine clerkship tests at Wright State University investigated test sensitivity and specificity for identifying students with insufficient knowledge, and compared final examination pass rates of counseled and noncounseled students. Results indicate that in-clerkship tests can identify at-risk…

Although President Bush favors continuous testing, headlines reflect an intense, growing antitesting sentiment. One standard does not fit all, current systems are malfunctioning, and kids are short-changed. A recent report says abstinence-only sex education is ineffective; high teen birth rates underline the need for comprehensive approaches. (MLH)

The difference in gain scores produced by traditional pretests and those produced by retrospective pretests when compared to posttest scores on the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument for preservice teachers was investigated in this study. Results indicated that gain scores using the traditional pretest produced significant improvement in…

Two hundred-fifty African American college students from two predominantly White institutions (PWIs) and two historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were administered the Non-Cognitive Questionnaire-Revised (NCQ-R) and the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI) to determine which psychosocial indices best predicted…

With the No Child Left Behind federal mandate, teachers and school administrators are challenged to provide the best instruction possible in mathematics and reading. Students are required to take the state mandated tests in grades three through eight and in grade ten. The stakes are high in that students may not be passed on to the next higher…

This study examined how high school seniors construct decision-making strategies for choosing a college to attend. To comprehend their decision-making strategies, we chose to examine this process through the theoretical lens of bounded rationality, which brings to light the complexity in constructing a college choice decision-making strategy…

Longitudinal links between perceived racial discrimination and later conduct problems and depressive symptoms were examined among 714 African American adolescents who were 10-12 years old at recruitment. Data were gathered 3 times over a 5-year period. Hypotheses were tested via latent curve modeling and multiple-group latent growth modeling.…

The Kansas City LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) National Education Service Center's (LNESC) Young Reader's Program combines social work principles and philosophies with a grounded educational curriculum in an after-school supplemental reading program for Hispanic/Latino, low-English-proficient, low-income, first- through…

The System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT) is a direct observation system specifically developed for use during physical education (PE; McKenzie, 1991; McKenzie, Sallis, & Nader, 1991). The purpose of this study was to validate the estimates of time spent in various physical activity intensities obtained with the paper and pencil…

The rise in suicide by African Americans in the United States is directly attributable to the dramatic, nearly three-fold increase in suicide rates of African American males. Gibbs (1997) hypothesized high social support, religiosity, and southern residence are protective factors against suicidality for Black people. This hypothesis was tested…