Posits that perceptions of past experience and expectations of the outcomes of future experience can have important consequences for determining young people's educational, career, and life experiences. The lecturer also examines high-stakes test performance and test use as a function of several factors, and traces the history of research on…

Surveyed middle school mathematics educators from professional development workshops on performance based assessment (PBA), veteran teachers, and teacher educators to examine classroom assessment variables and views on PBA experiences. Teachers perceived high efficacy regarding ability to effect instructional change. Most improved interactions…

Introduces the articles of this special issue, which represent the thinking of a group of researchers and educators regarding assessment in the context of culture and pedagogy. The emphasis is on the development of assessments that engage the cultural strengths of children from minority groups. (SLD)

Surveyed 19 middle school mathematics teachers and 18 school-of-education faculty members about the extent to which performance-based learning and assessment experiences were viewed as important and needed. Discusses implications of differences between the two groups for planning professional-development workshops. (SLD)

Describes design and implementation of a project which focused on early identification of potentially gifted students among youths frequently overlooked because of socioeconomic, cultural, and/or linguistic differences. Also discusses validation of a battery of procedures and techniques designed to identify potentially gifted students among…

Based on the recollections of high-achieving young adults, concludes that while the major influence of memorable teachers is on academic competence and performance, the characteristics perceived as having had notable influence are interpersonal skills and affective qualities. (GC)

A study was conducted to validate a model for measurement of self-concept in inner city children. Black and White students answered questions on the Self-Appraisal Inventory-Revised (SAI-R). Results supported the similarity in structure of self between inner city children and the population on which the SAI-R was standardized. (Author/GC)

Examines individual, family, and community factors identified in the literature as affecting achievement, attainment, and aspiration among African-American youth in junior and senior high school. In considering the complex interactions between achievement and attainment, it is necessary to review ways that achievement is measured and the…

Critiques the Bush Administration's "America 2000" education initiative, in particular the call for national testing as a major tool for student assessment and education reform. Discusses the difficulty of designing accurate instruments, the drain on resources for other needs, and the ineffectiveness of testing as an agent for reform. (JB)

Argues that genetics, as popularized in "The Bell Curve" (Herrnstein and Murray, 1994), does not affect educational attainment and personal development, but environmental upheavals do. The environmental changes that effect educational and personal development are highlighted. It cautions that works involving pseudoscience, like "The Bell Curve,"…