Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

A Model For Comprehensive Reform In General Education: Portland State University, Charles R. White

University Studies Assessment Research

Article presenting General Education Working Group Recommendations, research and rational for implementing the University Studies program.

Case Studies Of The Structure, Dynamics, And Outcomes Of Interdisciplinary Team Organization In Oregon Middle Schools, Gail Lyon

Dissertations and Theses

Middle school literature advocates interdisciplinary team organization as a structure that enhances student learning and teacher satisfaction. In an interdisciplinary team, teachers responsible for different content areas collaboratively plan the instructional program for a shared group of students. Yet, fewer than fifty percent of the nation's middle schools use an interdisciplinary team structure, and research indicates that teams are fragile and temporary. Few studies were found that described interdisciplinary team organization at the team or individual teacher level.

The purpose of this case study is to describe the structure, dynamics, and outcomes of interdisciplinary teams of teachers in middle schools. …

General Education Working Group Report Recommendations, Portland State University. General Education Working Group

University Studies Assessment Research

This report seeks to address several of the questions and concerns raised by faculty at a previous meeting and to more completely set forth the rationale for the goals of the general education program the General Education Working Group recommend.

A Ranking Of U.S. Graduate Programs In Urban Studies And Urban Affairs, James G. Strathman

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

A ranking of 33 Urban Studies and Urban Affairs graduate programs in the U.S. is developed from peer ratings obtained in a program survey and from citation activity reported in the Social Sciences Citation Index over the 1986-89 period. In addition, a breakdown of citations by broadly defined subject areas is presented. The survey revealed a difference between Ph.D. and MUS/MA programs in the perceived relative importance of peer evaluation and citations as rating criteria. The survey results also indicate that the degree of familiarity with other programs is lower than what has been observed in most social science disciplines.

A Study Of Qualitative Miscue Analysis Scoring Systems For Identification Of Instructional Reading Levels, Sylvia Estelle Dean

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the accuracy and practicality of May's Poor Reader (PR) scoring system for the informal reading inventory (IRI), an individual assessment device designed to determine a student's instructional reading level. The PR is a qualitative scoring system developed by Frank May that examines only two miscues (defaults and meaning-denigrating substitutions) in arriving at an estimate of instructional reading level. The predictor variable, PR, was compared for accuracy and practicality with five other predictor variables consisting of four traditional quantitative scoring systems and an additional qualitative system of May's; PR was also compared …

A Performance Appraisal Model For Postsecondary Education, Peggy Connolly

Dissertations and Theses

Purpose. Although performance appraisal is an important factor in the successful operation of organizations, it is often a difficult and threatening task. Traditional approaches to evaluation have proved to be neither effective nor in legal compliance. This problem affects postsecondary institutions, where customary subjective appraisal contributes to undesirable employment discrimination.

This study provides postsecondary administrators with an effective and legally defensible model of performance appraisal. Research addressed these questions: (1) What does statutory law mandate in appraisal? (2) What issues, patterns, and decisions concerning appraisal have been identified through the judicial process, and what degree of consistency has been shown …

Adults As Students: Ego Development And The Influence Of The Academic Environment, Shannon Moon Leonetti

Dissertations and Theses

This study was based on the premise that one outcome of education is ego development. The research was based on Jane Loevinger's theory that ego development is the central frame-of-reference through which people view themselves and their relationships with others. The study looked for evidence of ego development in adult students and for contributing factors, including academic environments. It compared the ego levels of students aged 35 to 55 at two higher education institutes and some experiences that are common to most colleges.

The variables compared were based on Loevinger's levels of ego development and theories of academic environments of …

A Study Of The Identification And Referral Components Of Substance Abuse Intervention Programs In Washington State's Public High Schools, Todd C. Herberg

Dissertations and Theses

This multiple-case study investigated the characteristics of successful high school substance abuse intervention programs.

The unit of analysis for this multiple-case study is the public high school substance abuse intervention program of twelve selected Washington State high schools. Sub-units of analysis within the multiple-case study include the various components and attributes of a substance abuse intervention program. Examples of these sub-units include: formal drug education policies; staff training on substance abuse issues and intervention skills; formal curriculum and student instruction; central office administration and building administration support for the program; community support for the program, staff time to administer the …

A Study Of Principals' Leadership Behavior In One Suburban School District, Darleen Huber-Dilbeck

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the leadership behavior of principals as perceived by the teachers and principals of one suburban school district. Research questions asked were: (1) Are there significant differences between the perceptions of principals and teachers concerning principals' leadership behavior on the twelve subscales of the LBDQ-XII? (2) Are there significant differences in viewing the leadership role when teachers' age, gender, teaching experience, level of training, or teaching assignment is considered?

This descriptive study invited 350 randomly selected teachers and all of the principals from 35 elementary, intermediate, and high schools in one suburban school …

The Grammatic Closure Subtest Of The Itpa As A Screening Device, Cathy Newquist

Dissertations and Theses

Identification and selection of a speech-language caseload in the school setting can be a challenging task. The initial stages of caseload selection are usually in the form of a screening procedure. Although speech-language information is gathered at that time, information about its relationship to each student's academic status is usually not obtained. Such information would be useful in a setting that requires the provision of special education services to be justified from a basis of academic need.

The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities' (ITPA) Grammatic Closure subtest has been correlated to academic and intellectual measures through various studies. …

A Study Using The 10-Key Pad On A Microcomputer And Electronic Calculator, Nancy K. Pechman

Dissertations and Theses

This study was conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference between the development of speed and accuracy on a 10-key pad on a microcomputer or on an electronic calculator. A total of 204 participants were involved in the quasi-experiment.

A Change In Pass/Fail Criterion On The Mini-Screening Language Test For Adolescents, Denice Lynn Palmer Milholland

Dissertations and Theses

This study was designed to determine whether varying criterion for pass/fail on the Mini-Screening Language Test for Adolescents (Mini-STAL) would increase accuracy of predicting outcome of the Screening Test of Adolescent Language (STAL). The Mini-STAL was developed by Prather et al. (1981) to identify rapidly those students between grades six through twelve who are in need of language intervention. Using Prather's established criterion (one or more errors equal failure), the Phoenix school district (Prather, 1981) found too many of their school population (20 percent) were failing the Mini- STAL. Thus, they established an experimental criterion (two or more errors equal …

Historical Development And Application Of The Conceptual Approach In Teaching, Louise A. Knoll

Dissertations and Theses

Contemporary American educators are expected to develop children's ability to think creatively. Unfortunately, many have understood "creative" and "creatively" as synonymous terms. In my opinion, healthy human beings are born with an ability to be creative. Being creative is innate. Behaving creatively is nurtured. Individual needs, individual worth, integrated curriculum, synthesis of affective and cognitive modes, and the whole child are additional phrases which have been misconstrued by educators. And yet, such phrases are at the heart of a conceptual approach in teaching, which is intended to make children think creatively. In order to discover the essence of the conceptual …

Examiner Sex Bias And Wechsler Intelligence Scale For Children Scores, Richard H. Dana, Richard Back

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (excluding Mazes and Digit Span) was administered to 64 third-grade children, randomly selected for IQ. Eight examiners, four males and four females, each tested eight children, four boys and four girls. Female examiners elicited higher Full Scale IQ, Verbal IQ, Comprehension, Similarities, and Vocabulary scores from all children.

A Comparison Of Education Systems In Nigeria And The United States Of America, James Edem Etim

Dissertations and Theses

The major purpose of this research study is contrived to determine and evaluate the historical backgrounds of Nigeria and the United States and its implications in the educational policies and systems of the two nations. Both these countries had their humble beginning under the British colonial administration.

The Development Of A Model For Identifying, Diagnosing And Correcting Dyslexic Problems In Third Grade Nigerian, Catherine Maffiong Essien

Dissertations and Theses

The Nigerian educational system is humanistic, nationally centered and open to all cultural, ethnic and tribal influences. The policy of Nigeria is to realize mass and practical education. However, the present system is highly selective and academically oriented. This study is done while education in Nigeria is in a period of revolution. Radical changes have been taken to keep up the national demand for progress and power.

Dyslexia, one of the leading causes of reading difficulties, is a term still unknown to some educators in Nigerian schools. This stems mainly from the fact that Nigerian public schools lack sufficient personnels …

A Comparative Study Of The Reponses By Varying Socioeconomic Groups On General Knowledge And Categorization Tasks, Margo I. Keller

Dissertations and Theses

This study sought to determine if there are any "cultural" or economic level patterns of behavior in responding to tasks involving categorizing pictures and recalling general knowledge. The Daberon School Headiness Device (1972), which contains subtests for general knowledge and categorization, was used to assess four groups of children: 1) lower-SES white, 2) lower-SES black, 3) middle-SES white, and 4) middle-SES black. This study involved thirty black and thirty white children between the ages of five years and five years, eleven months. All subjects were screened to determine race, age, auditory acuity, speech intelligibility, subject cooperation, and socioeconomic status (SES). …

The Teaching Of History In The Secondary Schools Of Australia, Richard Townley Blaine

Dissertations and Theses

Australian students terminating their secondary education with completion of Form Four provided the major stimulus during the last decade for new curriculum developments in an organized study of man. To provide these fifteen-year old pupils with the necessary exposure to life for social adjustment underscored the debate between many social scientists and history teachers on the ability of their respective subject's focus.

Where in the middle of the last decade Australia found herself in the middle of a communication revolution, many students, ending their educations during mid-adolescence, did not finish the normal sequence of history courses. History's dominance in the …

The Effect Of Attending Behavior Training Upon Learning, Martha Sue Peden

Dissertations and Theses

Various studies have been implemented concerning the physiological and psychological components of attending behavior, particularly in the area of the exceptional child. Little has been done, however, to develop specific behavioral definitions of attending behavior and to incorporate these into treatment-based research programs involving normal children attending a regular public school.

The purpose of this investigation was to discover if children from a regular public elementary school who are deficient in attending behavior skills can be taught these skills in a short-term behavior modification program and to determine if the skills thus learned facilitate learning within the regular classroom setting.

Danish Day Care As A Social Institution, Albert Sessions Belais, Ellane L. Kibel

Dissertations and Theses

A study of the social and cultural aspects of day care in Denmark. The thesis hypothesizes that experiences in the development of Danish day care are relevant to the future development of day care in the United States.

Interest in Danish day care was stimulated by the reports of Drs. Marsden and Mary Wagner (1970) which found Danish day care provided an intimate and innovative standard of care for young children.

Twenty centers of widely varied types were visited in Denmark. Information was gathered largely through unstructured interviews with child care staff and non-participant observation. Special attention was paid to …

A Comparison Of Two Methods Of Instruction In Office Skills: Classroom-Laboratory And Classroom-Laboratory With Cooperative Work Experience, Barbara Swanson Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

This research study is designed to take an initial step in the direction of determining whether cooperative office education programs are more effective in teaching clerical skills, in preparing students for office employment, and in helping them to achieve employment and job success than classroom-laboratory training in office skills alone.

The Portland State University Educational Center: A Study Of A New Approach To Off-Campus Education, Harvey L. Rice

Dissertations and Theses

The P.S.U. Educational Center is an attempt to facilitate the access of Portland's inner city residents to higher education. It is an attempt to overcome the bitterness, defeatism and mistrust that many of these people feel toward education. In its four year history the Center has grown rapidly. The number of people served by the Center per term has risen from 15 in 1969 to 1,300 in 1972. Course offerings have increased from 5 to nearly 30. The Center offers both college credit and other types of courses at nominal fees. An evaluation of the Center--based in part on a …

The Effects Of Perceptual-Motor Training On The Perceptual-Motor Skills Of Emotionally Disturbed Children, Karen R. Brown

Dissertations and Theses

A study was conducted to determine if the program of perceptual-motor training outlined by D.H. Radler and Newell C. Kephart in their book, Success Through Play, would increase the perceptual-motor skills of emotionally disturbed children as measured by the Purdue Perceptual Motor Survey. Twenty children from the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area whose ages ranged from six to twelve years were included in the program. These children were grouped according to their diagnosis of withdrawn or acting-out which was received by the agency upon their referral. Three agencies participated in the study.

Each child was administered the Purdue Perceptual Motor …

The Environmental Crisis: The Effects Of Ecology Courses On High School Students, Carol C. Fletcher

Dissertations and Theses

It is a basic premise of this thesis that an environmental crisis exists in the world today and has been worsening at least since World War II. The crisis is evident in the population explosion, the deteriorating air and water quality, and the depletion of our natural resources. With the feeling that all persons must become aware, concerned, and involved with the environmental crisis if the trend is to be reversed, this study is concerned with one segment of the population – high school students.

Sociologists, and especially human ecologists, have not been concerned professionally with the environmental crisis, but …

Teaching Social Studies From A Global Viewpoint, Janet Hays Clemmer

Dissertations and Theses

The need for preparing our youth to live in an interdependent world on this finite planet has become urgent since the beginning of the nuclear age at the end of World War II. There is a need to extend the loyalty of the citizen tor the nation-state to human needs seen from a global view. The involvement of the United States in the international community already is extensive because of its predominant power. This involvement is not reflected in our education, either from the amount of time devoted to social studies in our schools or in the emphasis on international …