Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

The Analysis Of Methods Of Instruction In College Algebra And Trigonometry Courses In The Langston University Department Of Mathematics, Cristie L. Bostic

McCabe Thesis Collection

In 1978, a recurring effort was made to remedy the constant decline of test scores in the area of mathematics around the country (Milhalko, 1978). At this time educational methods of "back-to-basics" and "competency-based" programs were seen as the solutions to the drastic decline in test scores and the decrease in interest among students in mathematics courses. Seventeen years later, teachers of mathematics in both the secondary schools and universities (entry level courses) are confronted daily with students who possess a fear of mathematics, students who are unwilling, uninterested, and unable to learn the concepts in mathematics, and students who …

Volume 09, Number 01, Richard F. Welch Editor

Reaching Through Teaching

Full text of Volume 09, Number 01 of Reaching Through Teaching.

Attitudes Of Black Secondary School Teachers Toward School Guidance In The Potchefstroom Area, South Africa, Elias H. Masibi

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Long-Term Effects On High School Seniors Of Learning To Read In Kindergarten, Ralph A. Hanson, Donna M. Farrell

Donna M Farrell

This follow-up study assessed the educational history and current reading proficiencies of 3,959 high school seniors from 24 school districts in 10 U.S. states in 1986. The purpose was to examine the effects, if any, of receiving formal reading instruction in kindergarten. Over one-third of these students attended elementary schools that implemented a carefully developed beginning reading program in their kindergarten classes in 1973. Although the study included kindergarten students from all backgrounds, those from at-risk backgrounds were overrepresented. Three types of information were combined for each student to create a data base for this study: (a) the amount of …

The Effect Of Gender And Age On Ppst Performance In An Urban Teacher Education Program, Judith Harrington

Counseling Faculty Publications

This study examined PPST scores for 318 College of Education students in a midsized, midwestern, urban university. Factors of gender and age were used to compare performance on the three PPST subtests of Reading, Writing and Mathematics. Findings tended to support some gender-stereotypical beliefs with regard to math and verbal abilities. The study's findings did not support the often perceived belief that traditional students outperform nontraditional students. Inferences for urban colleges of Education are discussed.

Koinonia, Melissa Schermer, Steve Moore, Alan Mula

Koinonia

An Article by Philip Yancey

President's Corner

CoCCA: Sharing the Wealth

Photo Collage of the ACSD '95 Conference

Who Wants Revival?

Book Review: Managing Student Affairs Effectively

Distinguished Service Awards

Hop on the Information Superhighway with the ACSD Electronic Discussion Group

A Study Of The Relationship Between Transformational Leadership And School Climate, Christine L. Jensen

Dissertations

The study investigated the relationship between transformational leadership and school climate in elementary schools in w est Michigan with enrollments of 200-800 students. Eighteen school districts with 294 participating teachers completed two questionnaires.

The independent variable of transformational leadership was investigated by using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to measure teachers' perceptions of leadership factors. The dependent variable of school climate was investigated by using the Organizational Climate Descriptor Questionnaire-Revised Elementary. The questionnaire was used to determine teachers' perceptions of principal openness, teacher openness, and overall school climate.

As a result of the data analysis, the investigation supported that there was …

Dedication- Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, And Practices, James C. Impara

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

The impetus for this book and for my involvement in it are due principally to the efforts of three people: Jimmie Fortune, Howard Stoker, and Barbara Plake. Jimmie edited (and contributed to) an earlier book devoted to licensure testing (Fortune, J. C., & Associates, 1985, Understanding Testing in Occupational Licensing, Jossey Bass: San Francisco.). Shortly after that book was published he told me that he felt some important topics had not been included and that another book was needed. He encouraged me on several occasions to edit a new book that picked up where his left off and expand …

Preface- Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, And Practices, James C. Impara

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

This book represents a unique effort for the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements and the Buros-Nebraska Series on Measurement and Testing. All of the previous books in this series have been associated with a symposium sponsored by the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements and the University of Nebraska. This book is "free standing" in that it is an independent effort intended to fulfill a perceived need for a book, but without preceding the book with a symposium. There are few books devoted solely to the topic of licensure testing, but each state and the federal government is involved in this …

Classroom Personalities Of Effective Teachers Within A Technical College Setting, Fred Manley

Dissertations

This study used student ratings to examine relationships between instructor personality and teaching effectiveness for technical college faculty. Research was specifically conducted to address three questions: (1) what personality traits are associated with effective teaching, (2) do the personality profiles of effective teachers differ by academic area, and (3) are there personality dimensions that distinguish above average from below-average instructors.

Students enrolled in classes taught by instructors randomly selected from the accounting, computer information systems, marketing, and office occupations departments at five Wisconsin technical colleges rated their instructors on 29 personality traits and 18 teaching behaviors. Pearson product-moment correlations were …

A Descriptive Study Of The Implementation Process For All-Day Alternate Day Kindergarten Schedules In Michigan Public Schools, Kenneth G. Drenth

Dissertations

This research project was initiated and designed to gather data on the decision making, implementation, and evaluative processes being used in Michigan schools implementing all-day alternate day kindergarten schedules.

The major issues of concern w ere an assessment of preplanning activities transpiring prior to implementation, staff development preparations, parental involvement in the decision-making process, and evaluative data collected.

Data were collected during the fall of 1994 via a questionnaire sent to 68 Michigan school districts that had implemented an all-day alternate day kindergarten. The same questionnaire was also sent to five Michigan school districts that had implemented the all-day alternate …

Teachers' Perception Of Instructional Leadership And Student Achievement, David Anspaugh

Dissertations

The focus of this study was to investigate the teachers' perceptions of the principal's leadership behaviors and how the achievement level of the students was affected. Three middle schools representing the Prairie View Public Schools were used in the study. These middle schools were Sparta Middle School, High Plain Middle School, and Middleville Middle School.

A staff survey was given to the 33 teachers in each of the buildings. The survey dealt with 18 leadership behaviors of the principal. The teachers were asked to rate the behaviors as to their importance to them and if the behaviors existed. The survey …

Volume 08, Number 03, Richard F. Welch Editor

Reaching Through Teaching

Full text of Volume 08, Number 03 of Reaching Through Teaching.

The Role Of Transformational Leadership In The Collaborative Development Of A Full Inclusion Program: An Action Research Study, Paul R. Hain

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This dissertation is a critical action research study on full inclusion for students with learning disabilities. The study describes how full inclusion for 16 students with learning disabilities in three regular classes was implemented in an Illinois elementary school over a one year period. The purpose of this study is to describe how transformational leadership, collaborative decision-making and action research helped in the development of full inclusion.

Action research was the method used to 1) observe and collect data about the project, 2) to analyze what was happening, and 3) help guide the inclusion teaching team in taking actions …

Koinonia, Harley Schreck, Jon Kaluga

Koinonia

Taking Student Culture Seriously: A coordinated program of research by five colleges in the Christian College Coalition, Harley Schreck

President's Corner, the Editor's Disk

ACSD Proposed Bylaw Change, New Professionals' Retreat Cancelled

CoCCA: Know Teams? No Problem & Hot Ideas!

Book Review-Right from Wrong: What You Need to Know to Help Youth Make Right Choices

New South East Regional Director, Northwest Regional Activity

A Study Of The Effect Of Developmental Kindergarten Placement On Student Achievement: Issues And Other Alternatives For The "Unready" Child, Sandra F. Earley

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of developmental kindergarten placement beyond third grade and whether differences exist in levels of academic achievement between students who participated in developmental kindergarten and those who were recommended to attend but did not.

The target population of this study spanned 3 years and included 203 kindergarten eligible students in a suburban school district in mid- Michigan who were recommended to attend developmental kindergarten. The accessible population was 105 of the original 203 students.

The Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) reading and mathematics test mean scores were analyzed for both groups …

The Nature Of Data Sources That Inform Decision-Making In Reading By Experienced Second-Grade Teachers, Margaret Mary Dinan Davis

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Studies

This qualitative research was designed to describe the nature of data sources that inform decision making in reading by experienced second grade teachers. Data was collected on seven subjects from multiple sources: seven, successive interviews, think alouds using videotaped lessons, classroom observations, and inspection of documents such as grade books, student work samples, report cards, and reading tests. Data analysis was accomplished by transcribing all data into a qualitative data base (Padilla, 1991). Text chunks were tagged and filtered by data source. Categories such as oral language and comparison of data were added as they emerged during analysis. The most …

Geographically, R.I. Teachers Are Among The Best, Chester Smolski

Smolski Texts

"Isn't it time that we recognize the good teachers and good work being done in the schools of this state rather than constantly harping on problems with education and how our students don't measure up to those in other countries?"

Section One: Purposes And Policy Issues

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

No Content

Title And Contents- Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, And Practices, James C. Impara, Linda L. Murphy

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, And Practices

Contents

Dedication

Preface

SECTION ONE: Purposes and Policy Issues

1. What is Licensure?
Kara Schmitt

2. Legal and Professional Bases for Licensure Testing
William A. Mehrens

3. Policy Issues with Psychometric Implications
Michael Rosenfeld, Richard J. Tannenbaum, and Scott Wesley

SECTION TWO: Procedures

Overview of the Licensure Testing Process
James C. Impara

4. Practice Analysis: Building the Foundation for Validity
Joan Knapp and Lenora Knapp

5. Test Development: Systematic Item Writing and Test Construction
Anthony LaDuca, Steven Downing, and Thomas Henzel

6. Developing and Using Clinical Examinations
Jimmie Fortune and Ted Cromack

7. Basic …

Section Two: Overview Of The Procedures For Developing A Licensure Examination, James C. Impara

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

There are a variety of strategies that may be employed in the development of a licensure examination. The following list of activities illustrates typical procedures. Depending on the needs and conditions of the particular occupation, certain variations in specific activities may take place or changes in the sequence may be appropriate. In addition to the procedures listed, many decisions will be made that may add activities. For example, the decision to use a computerized item bank or to enter into a computerized adaptive testing format will require procedures in addition to those described briefly below.

1. Conducting a job (or …

6. Developing And Using Clinical Examinations, Jimmie C. Fortune, Theodore R. Cromack

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

INTRODUCTION

Generally, clinical examinations for licensing (sometimes called performance tests) involve the candidate completing one or more tasks (in licensing this is thought of as "services for a client") that have been selected from the supervised practice Gob analysis) of an occupation or profession. The clinical examination may exist in contexts (occupations) that do not require client interactions. Such contexts include building trades, automobile repair, accounting, etc. The tasks may range from fixing brakes, to preparing a body for burial, to wiring a house, or auditing a set of business interactions.

Other contexts require the candidate to perform services or …

7. Basic Psychometric Issues In Licensure Testing, Howard W. Stoker, James C. Impara

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

INTRODUCTION

The number of people in the United States who carry some responsibility for the writing of examination questions and the construction of tests is unknown. In the Preface to The Construction and Use of Achievement Examinations, published by the American Council on Education in 1936, the authors indicated that the number probably exceeded a million. That number has certainly grown in the past 60 years. Questions are posed to students by teachers at all levels of education; the Armed Forces have people whose job it is to construct tests which are used in the promotion of personnel; over …

4. Practice Analysis: Building The Foundation For Validity, Joan E. Knapp, Lenora G. Knapp

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

INTRODUCTION

A review of the literature associated with job analysis reveals two extremes of opinion as represented by the following provocative quotes:

Historically job analysis has been a relatively soporific area of industrial and organizational psychology, characterized by neither heated controversy nor prominent visibility in the research literature. (Harvey, 1991, p. 71)

Validation was once a priestly mystery, a ritual behind the scenes with the professional elite as witness and judge. Today it is a public spectacle combining the attraction of chess and mud wrestling. (Cronbach, 1988, p. 3)

Both our evaluation of practice analysis research and our professional experience …

2. Legal And Professional Bases For Licensure Testing, William A. Mehrens

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

In this chapter the author presents the legal setting for licensure testing, I discusses the role of various professional standards and codes (i.e., the EEOC Uniform Guidelines, 1978, and the AERA/APA/NCME Standards, 1985), presents some of the pertinent rulings from several court decisions, and makes inferences about future changes in professional standards and their potential impact on licensure test development.

There necessarily is some minor overlap with the material in this chapter and some other chapters in this book. There is a brief discussion of the differences between licensure, certification. and employment testing and how those differences relate …

5. Systematic Item Writing And Test Construction, Anthony Laduca, Steven M. Downing, Thomas R. Henzel

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

Standardized objective testing remains the most popular mode of licensure testing. Even where other types of tests are incorporated, it is often the case that they are provided as complimentary to standardized, multiple-choice (MC) tests. Moreover, scoring theories and standard-setting procedures have been developed over the years in the context of standardized MC testing. At the same time, critics have pointed to limitations of contemporary MC testing practices, including lack of fidelity to real-life challenges and emphasis on recall of factual minutiae. In our view, testing professionals should make conscientious attempts to modify test development procedures so as to address …

3. Policy Issues With Psychometric Implications, Michael Rosenfeld, Richard F. J. Tannenbaum, Scott Wesley

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

Testing candidates with disabilities, testing repeaters, and coaching involve issues of fairness, the validity of the inferences made from test scores, and protection of the public. Licensing boards must develop policies to deal with each of these issues. It is interesting to note that although all three are of concern to licensing agencies, little of the research on these topics has been conducted in licensure settings. This chapter discusses the results of research conducted on each topic, considers the psychometric implications for policy of each, and suggests steps licensing boards can take when formulating policy.

TESTING CANDIDATES WITH DISABILITIES IN …

1. What Is Licensure, Kara Schmitt

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

When most individuals hear the terms license and licensure, their first reaction is that these are easily understood and relatively simple words. Everyone knows what these terms mean. Or do they?

What is licensure? It is a multifaceted, complex governmental system of regulation with the stated purpose being public protection. According to Webster's dictionary (Guralnik, 1976), a license is defined as "a formal permission to do something: esp., authorization by law to do some specified thing (license to marry, practice medicine, hunt, etc.)." The term Licensure is then defined to mean "the act or practice of granting licenses, …

Section Three Emerging Practices

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

No abstract provided.

8. Item Banking, Betty A. Bergstrom, Richard C. Gershon

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices

Item banks developed by licensure agencies range from a collection of items stored on index cards to highly sophisticated electronic databases. Regardless of the storage mechanism, most banks contain items that have been organized and referenced according to procedures established by the licensure agency. This chapter outlines useful practices for building and maintaining a computerized item bank. We address storage of item text, graphics, and statistical history. We deal with the creation of paper-and-pencil and computerized tests from an item bank and the use of Item Response Theory (lRT) to calibrate and equate item banks. New directions in item banking …