The Houston Independent School District offers two primary bilingual programs for Spanish-speaking English-language learners (ELLs). In both programs, students may transition into a pre-exit phase of bilingual education so long as they meet certain performance criteria. In this Pre-Exit phase, predominantly English-language instruction is used in…

This study explored the developmental trajectories and predictors of word reading and reading comprehension among young at-risk readers. In fall of first grade, 185 students identified as at-risk for reading difficulties were assessed on measures of domain-specific skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and vocabulary), domain-general…

The purpose of this study was to examine child-level pathways in development of prealgebraic knowledge versus word-problem solving, while evaluating the contribution of calculation accuracy and fluency as mediators of foundational skills/processes. Children (n = 962; mean 7.60 years) were assessed on general cognitive processes and early…

The purpose of this study was to examine child-level pathways in development of prealgebraic knowledge versus word-problem solving, while evaluating the contribution of calculation accuracy and fluency as mediators of foundational skills/processes. Children (n = 962; mean 7.60 years) were assessed on general cognitive processes and early…

This study addresses two questions: (1) Why do fourth grade students in Rhode Island perform better on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) than eighth grade students?, and (2) Why do Rhode Island parochial students perform better on the ITBS than public school students? The examination of both questions focused on three areas: school setting…

Recent research in the area of Curriculum-Based Measures (CBM) in writing has shown that traditionally used metrics, such as total words written and total words correct, may not be the best tools for measuring writing performance, for both secondary and elementary aged children (e.g., Gansle, Noell, VanDerHeyden, Naquin, & Slider, 2002; Tindal…

"Although while pupils earned higher scores than nonwhite pupils on both tests, the Metropolitan produced significantly greater differences between the races than the Iowa, at both grade levels. (Author)

This year the Center on Education Policy (CEP) analyzed data on the achievement of different groups of students in two distinct ways. First, it looked at grade 4 test results to determine whether the performance of various groups improved at three achievement levels--basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced. Second, it looked at gaps…

A study examined the effects of prediction training on the reading comprehension and written composition performance of fourth-grade students on the following reading and writing tasks: story recall, story generation, and number of relevant predictions. Subjects, 40 students attending two private urban elementary schools, were assigned to one of…

A study involving 14 regular classroom student science teachers assigned to Grades 3, 4, and 5 and the public school students in each of the classes was undertaken to assess the relationship between student achievement and teacher performance ratings. The student teachers were all female and were seniors in a four-year undergraduate teacher…

This study addressed the question: Why do parochial school students in Rhode Island tend to perform better than public school students in relation to national norms on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS)? Data for examination of school setting and population factors were collected from interviews with teachers and administrators, a short…

Two projects that have explored the feasibility of computer-generated verbal score reports for the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills are reported. The first, the Madison Project, designed, produced, and evaluated computer-generated testing reports that were useful to teachers and informative to parents. The reports, which were narrative in format, were…

Research on an interpretation technique (IT) for using the Pupil Item Response Record (PIRR) of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) to actively involve students in their test interpretation was presented. The major concern of the study was to determine whether the IT had any impact on attitudes toward or knowledge about the ITBS. Students in…

In 1990-91, the second year of Alaska's statewide testing program, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills was administered to 24,684 Alaskan public school students in grades 4, 6, and 8. The nationally normed achievement test covered reading, mathematics, and language arts. Most students in grades 6 and 8 scored above the 50th percentile in all subjects,…

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is a well established tool for formative assessment. CBM has also been used for prediction of state test scores. However, validity coefficients between math-CBM and state tests have been moderate at best (Skiba, Magnusson, Martson, and Erickson, 1986; Martson, 1989; Putnam, 1989). The purpose of the present…