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Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons™

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Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

2001

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education

The Effect Of Test-Taker Sex, Audience And Topic On Task Performance In Tape-Mediated Assessment Of Speaking, Tom Lumley, Barry O'Sullivan Oct 2001

The Effect Of Test-Taker Sex, Audience And Topic On Task Performance In Tape-Mediated Assessment Of Speaking, Tom Lumley, Barry O'Sullivan

Dr Tom Lumley

There is growing interest in the effect on candidate performance of characteristics of the interlocutor in tests of speaking. A range of variables associated with the interlocutor may cause systematic variation in linguistic performance, and consequently in scores awarded. This paper hypothesises that there may be effects on performance attributable to an interaction of these variables; in the present study, the task topic, the sex of the person presenting the topic and the sex of the candidate. This investigated in the context of a tape-mediated test of speaking, where no interlocutor is actually present; instead, stimulus material is presented by …

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Latino Students In Boston: An Educational Profile, Miren Uriarte Jul 2001

Latino Students In Boston: An Educational Profile, Miren Uriarte

Gastón Institute Publications

Having an impact on public policy requires that groups and communities be able to understand and manage information. But it is often the case that data and information that can be useful to community action is not accessible or understandable. Since 1992, when the 1990 census data became available, the Gastón Institute has developed data profiles of each city and town with significant Latino population in an effort to bridge this important aspect of the information gap facing Latino communities in the state. The feedback from community leaders and organizations about these data profiles led us to use a similar …

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Access To Educational Opportunities For Latino Students In Four Massachusetts School Districts, Carole C. Upshur, Rodolfo R. Vega, Natalie Carithers, Charles Jones, Dale Lucy-Allen, Tatjana Meschede, Charles Ndungu Apr 2001

Access To Educational Opportunities For Latino Students In Four Massachusetts School Districts, Carole C. Upshur, Rodolfo R. Vega, Natalie Carithers, Charles Jones, Dale Lucy-Allen, Tatjana Meschede, Charles Ndungu

Gastón Institute Publications

This report was prompted by the pressing concerns over the high failure rates of Latino students on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam. While 27% of White students failed the English portion of the MCAS test and 38% failed the Mathematics portion in 2000, the corresponding rates for Latino students were 66% and 79% respectively (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2000a). There is a great urgency to understand why Latino students score substantially behind students from other racial/ethnic groups. This urgency stems from the reality that students currently enrolled in the 10th grade will be required to pass this exam …

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Kinsey Dialogue Series #3: Landscaping The Learning Environment To Create A Home For The Complex Mind, Jan Visser Jan 2001

Kinsey Dialogue Series #3: Landscaping The Learning Environment To Create A Home For The Complex Mind, Jan Visser

Participatory Research & Practice

I am going to use the opportunity presented by the 2001 David Kinsey Lecture to bring together some of the ideas expressed in my recent work, and to reflect on my decades-long experience in creating the conditions for the development of learning in an international context that experience, and my reflections on it, has led me to recognize that learning is an immensely more complex phenomenon than most of our current practice to promote and facilitate it would have us believe. Consequently, I have come to the conclusion that the complex human mind is poorly at home in much of …

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Landscaping The Learning Environment To Create A Home For The Complex Mind, Jan Visser Jan 2001

Landscaping The Learning Environment To Create A Home For The Complex Mind, Jan Visser

Participatory Research & Practice

I am going to use the opportunity presented by the 2001 David Kinsey lecture to bring together some ideas expressed in m recent work and to reflect on my decades-long experience in creating the conditions for the development of learning in an international context. That experience, and my reflections on it, has led me to recognize that learning is an immensely more complex phenomenon than most of our current practice to promote and facilitate it would have us believe. Consequently, I have come to the conclusion that the complex human mind is poorly at home in much of the environment …

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A Resource Guide For Bridging The Cultural Gap Between Hispanic Parents And Their Children's Teachers In An Elementary School Setting, Shawna D. Greene Jan 2001

A Resource Guide For Bridging The Cultural Gap Between Hispanic Parents And Their Children's Teachers In An Elementary School Setting, Shawna D. Greene

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to increase the involvement of Hispanic parents to result in higher student achievement in the elementary school. Research on cultural barriers of Hispanic parent involvement and the programs that schools have implemented to overcome cultural barriers was examined. A resource guide for elementary school teachers was developed in order to help teachers find ways to overcome the cultural barriers of parent involvement in schools.

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Cultural Awareness Activities For Teachers, Martin F. Wittman Jan 2001

Cultural Awareness Activities For Teachers, Martin F. Wittman

All Graduate Projects

We live and grow in an increasingly diverse society, and it is as important for school age students to understand people who are different, as it is for them to understand math or science. The purpose ofthis project was to develop a variety of cultural awareness activities for use by K-12 teachers in the Bethel School District in the State of Washington. All activities were aligned with the tools and concepts of Bethel's employee cultural awareness model and presented in the form of a handbook. The intent of the handbook was to provide a format for teachers which could be …

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Experimenting With Uncertainty: Essays In Honour Of Alan Davies Dec 2000

Experimenting With Uncertainty: Essays In Honour Of Alan Davies

Dr Tom Lumley

This festschrift brings together 28 invited papers surveying the state of the art in language testing from a perspective which combines technical and broader applied linguistics insights. The papers cover issues ranging from construct definition to the design and applications of language tests, including their importance as a means of exploring larger issues in language teaching, language learning and language policy. The volume locates work in language testing in a context of social, political and ethical issues at a time when testing is increasingly expected to be publicly accountable

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The Process Of The Assessment Of Writing Performance : The Rater's Perspective, Tom Lumley Dec 2000

The Process Of The Assessment Of Writing Performance : The Rater's Perspective, Tom Lumley

Dr Tom Lumley

This study investigates the process of rating texts written by adult ESL learners. Four experienced raters provided think-aloud protocols describing the rating process for a set of 24 texts. The think-aloud data allowed analysis of the sequence of rating, raters' interpretations of the scoring categories, and difficulties raters faced. The study reveals the complexity of the rating process, whereby raters struggle to resolve a tension between the wordings (or rules) of the rating scale and their complex, initial, intuitive impression of the text. Rating requires training to provide reliable measurement. The study also demonstrates that caution is needed in interpreting …

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