This general achievement trends profile includes information that the Center on Education Policy (CEP) and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) obtained from states from fall 2008 through April 2009. Included herein are: (1) Bullet points summarizing key findings about achievement trends in that state at three performance…

This general achievement trends profile includes information that the Center on Education Policy (CEP) and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) obtained from states from fall 2008 through April 2009. Included herein are: (1) Bullet points summarizing key findings about achievement trends in that state at three performance…

This general achievement trends profile includes information that the Center on Education Policy (CEP) and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) obtained from states from fall 2008 through April 2009. Included herein are: (1) Bullet points summarizing key findings about achievement trends in that state at three performance…

Working under an activity theory framework, the present study was designed to determine how the activity settings, individual and contextual, contributed to the instructional practices and understandings of test-only beginning special education teachers. Specifically, the focus of this study was to examine how teachers with no formal teacher…

We developed equivalent, alternate forms of easyCBM[R] in reading (n=20 forms) and mathematics (n=13 forms) with different skills reflective of the National Reading Panel (NRP) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), respectively. We then took three forms to use as screening measures in the fall, winter, and spring so educators…

Grade earned and class attendance records were examined to determine if posting PowerPoint notes on a web-based course management system was related to enhanced performance or increased absences. There were no differences in either grades or absences between classes that had notes posted and those that did not. However, results indicated…

Student teachers learned about teaching principles with the help of an instructional program that included classroom animation exemplars, where expert teachers demonstrate how to apply teaching principles to a classroom scenario. Some students learned by solely observing the classroom animations, whereas others were presented with the expert's…

The five papers in this special issue of the "Journal of Applied Testing Technology" address fundamental issues of validity when tests are modified or accommodations are provided to English Language Learners (ELL) or students with disabilities. Three papers employed differential item functioning (DIF) and factor analysis and found the…

The UNESCO Associated Schools Project emphasizes world community, human rights, and international understanding. This article investigates the emergence and global diffusion of the project from 1953 to 2001, estimating the influence of national, regional, and world characteristics on the likelihood of a country adopting a UNESCO school. It also…

Attitudes about inclusion are extremely complex and vary from teacher to teacher and school to school. This article explores the attitudes of teachers about inclusion of children with special needs in their secondary schools in general education. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design, with 60 teachers as participants from…

This study, framed within sociocultural theory, examines the interaction of adult ESL test-takers in two tests of oral proficiency: one in which they interacted with an examiner (the individual format) and one in which they interacted with another student (the paired format). The data for the eight pairs in this study were drawn from a larger…

The complex nature and uncertain information in social problems required the emergence of fuzzy decision support systems in social areas. In this paper, we developed user-friendly Fuzzy Group Decision Support Systems (FGDSS) software. The software can be used for multi-purpose decision making processes. It helps the users determine the main and…

This study tested the hypothesis that self-regulation of writing is a multifaceted modular construct and that students would perceive different goal orientations for writing as involving the application of different writing strategies. Two hundred eleven Jewish Israeli high school students engaged in a writing assignment and then reported on their…

Background/Context: In response to state-level test-based accountability and the federal No Child Left Behind Act, school administrators increasingly view centralized curriculum and prescribed instructional strategies as the most direct means of increasing student performance. This movement toward standardization reduces teachers' autonomy and…

In textbooks, foreign (second) language reading proficiency is often evaluated through comprehension questions. In case, authentic texts are used as reading material, such questions should be prepared by teachers. However, preparing appropriate questions may be a very demanding task for teachers. This paper introduces a method for automatically…