Reviews writing research that implicates writing-speaking relationships by constructing contrasting positions for organizing the research and understanding the relationships: (1) that writing differs from speaking; and (2) that writing is similar to speaking. Research issues regarding integrating these positions are raised, and a guideline is…

Paper introduces a collection of papers on educational assessment, noting controversies surrounding both old and new assessment methods, discussing the persistent set of technical issues that must be addressed by the research community in measurement, and examining work by the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student…

This study investigated how domain specifications controlled topic and rater reliability. History students completed three performance tasks. For each topic, they took prior knowledge tests, read primary materials, and wrote explanatory essays. Using a theory-based scoring rubric, four raters scored all essays. The rubric worked similarly on the…

This research applied evolving conceptions of learning to examine how to represent and evaluate students' and experts' cognitive structures. High school history students completed several tasks. Direct comparisons of the quality of student maps with expert maps showed that experts' concept maps could be used to score students' concept maps…

Techniques for establishing the reliability and validity of student writing assessment are presented. Raters scored collections of elementary students' narrative writing with holistic scores from two rubrics (one established and one new, performance-based rubric). The new rubric proved reliable and valid, though correlational patterns were not…

Describes research on the development of a measure of student metacognition. The brief, domain-independent measure serves as a collateral measure in construct validation, supporting exploration of the self-regulatory demands of performance assessment. Results show that metacognition can be directly and explicitly measured in the context of…

Based on the 1993 California Learning Assessment System Middle Grades Mathematics Performance Assessment, this study explored whether schools provided students equal opportunities to learn that which is assessed. Classroom observation of assessment administration and interviews with students and teachers at 13 schools found some differences…

Considers the reaction to anti-racist change among white British secondary school students. Efforts to include the students in this process have included the conceptualization of white ethnicity. Discusses the development of this concept and efforts to keep it free of racist and nationalist sentiments. (MJP)

Describes a method for assessing schools' performance in relation to socioeconomic indicators of their location. Such indicators include, the percentage of owner-occupied houses, car ownership, unemployment, and overcrowding. Discusses the process of indexing these indicators and their relation to school performance. (MJP)

Explores the way in which scientific literacy has been defined, justified, and operationalized in current proposals for science education reform. Current visions of scientific literacy are being implemented in narrow and conventional ways. Further limitations in science education reform are discussed and alternative science reform theories are…

Examines the process of resonance through an examination of the experiences shared by four preservice teachers. The role of experiential storytelling, and the connection of specific items in current or past experiences to a narrative of their own or someone else's experience are discussed. (MAK)

The motivations of African Americans with regard to precollege teaching as a career are examined through case studies of a male and a female who were considering pursuing secondary certification at the graduate level but decided instead to pursue doctorates to teach at the college level. (MAK)

The frequency, severity, and consequences of sexual harassment in American secondary schools was studied using 1993 survey data of 1,203 students in grades 8-11 from 79 public schools. Overall, 83% of females and 60% of males reported they received unwanted sexual advances in school. (MAK)

Children from kindergarten through sixth grade (n=58) were presented with nine pictures depicting scenes from the colonial era through modern times and arranged the pictures in chronological order. Distinctions in historical time became increasingly differentiated with age. (MAK)

Contents of 800 elementary, middle, and high school textbooks published from 1919 to 1991 were analyzed with regard to their levels of difficulty. Following World War II, there was a major decline in schoolbook difficulty which may have led to the subsequent decline in SAT-verbal scores. (MAK)