The alignment between a test and the content domain it measures represents key evidence for the validation of test score inferences. Although procedures have been developed for evaluating the content alignment of linear tests, these procedures are not readily applicable to computerized adaptive tests (CATs), which require large item pools and do…

A process for judging the alignment between curriculum standards and assessments developed by the author is presented. This process produces information on the relationship of standards and assessments on four alignment criteria: Categorical Concurrence, Depth of Knowledge Consistency, Range of Knowledge Correspondence, and Balance of…

Many states and school districts are making concerted efforts to boost student achievement in mathematics and science. This information brief is intended for those who seek to improve student learning by creating coherent systems of expectations and assessments in states and districts. Other potential audiences are those who study reform, make…

The Urban Mathematics Collaborative (UMC) project has the goal of contributing to the improvement of mathematics education in the inner-city schools by identifying models to enhance the professional lives of teachers and encouraging the entry of high school mathematics teachers into a larger mathematics community including mathematicians from…

This project paper reports the interobserver agreements and reliabilities for the observation procedures used in the Descriptive Study of Phase IV of the Individually Guided Education Evaluation Project. Only data from four observers--at the two Developing Mathematical Processes Schools and the two Wisconsin Design for Reading Skills Development…

A summative evaluation of the instructional television series "Reading for a Reason" was conducted during the spring of 1982 as part of the premier showing of the series over the Wisconsin Educational Television Network. The series consisted of eight programs designed to teach skills for content area reading to seventh and eighth grade…

THINKABOUT, an ITV series for grades 5 and 6 designed to teach thinking skills, has been used in Wisconsin since 1979. The purposes of this study, conducted in spring 1981, were to identify teacher and student outcomes from using the series, ways of helping teachers to better implement THINKABOUT, means of expanding the use of THINKABOUT, and…

Upper elementary students are the focus of this paper, intended to present a few studies that have been done in the past five years that are related to two aspects of problem solving: strategies used by the problem solver and tasks used in studying problem solving. The review is not intended to be exhaustive, but is designed to present examples of…

One of the implicit goals of the Mathematical Problem Solving Project, MPSP, was to increase the teachers' awareness of what problem-solving is and of different ways of solving problems. The problem solving sort task was developed to assess change due to involvement with MPSP in the teachers' perception of what problems they would use to teach…

This monograph discusses criteria for judging the alignment between expectations of student achievement and assessment. Alignment is central to current efforts of systemic and standards-based education reforms in mathematics and science. More than four-fifths of the states have content frameworks in place in mathematics and science, and a large…

This paper describes the Study of Systemic Reform in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), an embedded research project that crossed the lines between objectivity and subjectivity, technical assistance and evaluation, and qualitative and quantitative research. The project created a collaboration between researchers at the Wisconsin Center for Education…

This document reports on the National Institute for Science Education (NISE) forum on the Evaluation of Systemic Reform in Mathematics and Science. The purposes of the forum were to reflect upon what to understand about the evaluation of reform in the educational system, and to encourage and support continuing efforts to learn more about how…

Reviewers analyzed the alignment of assessments and standards in mathematics and science from four states at a four-day institute conducted June 29 through July 2, 1998. Six reviewers compared the match between assessment items and standards in mathematics and seven compared the match in science. Data from these analyses were processed and used to…

Forty second-year algebra students were interviewed while solving eight problems. Data from the interviews included frequencies of problem-solving processes and scores on the test. Conceptual knowledge accounted for 50 percent of the variance. (MP)

Comments on the fact that conditional equity metrics report differences in performance among groups of students given one or more conditions under which that performance may have been influenced. Discusses their use as a tool for evaluating equity. Contains 16 references. (DDR)