Newsgroups: bit.listserv.erl-l
Date:         Sat, 12 Sep 1992 16:16:00 CDT
From:         P30JWP1@NIU.BITNET
Subject:      NEAP: Science & Reading Almanacs (78 lines)

The following is provided by The Office of Educational Research
and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.  Please feel
welcome to distribute.

                  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
         OFFICE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND IMPROVEMENT
            NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

                 NAEP 1990 SCIENCE AND READING
               ALMANACS NOW AVAILABLE ON DISKETTE

The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES) announces the availability of almanacs for the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1990 reading
and science assessments. These almanacs contain computer-
generated tables of information on a nationally representative
sample of fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade students at public
and private schools. To facilitate their use, these almanac files
can be imported into any word processor program.

The almanacs contain contextual information on the performance of
students in science or reading based upon background
questionnaires administered to students, principals or school
administrators, and eighth grade students' science teachers
cross-tabulated by key variables.

Questions about race-ethnicity, language spoken in the home,
parental education, reading materials in the home, homework,
attendance, school climate, which parents live at home, and which
parents work are included on the student demographics
questionnaire. The student subject area questionnaire included
questions about instructional activities, courses taken, use of
specialized resources, and students' views about the importance
of the subject.

A questionnaire administered to eighth grade science examinees'
teachers had 100 questions, including sex, race-ethnicity, years
of teaching experience, coursework, degree major and minor, in-
service training, and control over classroom and resources. In
addition, it contained 58 questions concerning student ability
level, time on task, homework, frequency of instructional
activity, and use of particular resources.

In order to provide school contextual information, a
questionnaire was administered to school administrators
containing 117 questions at grades 4 and 8, and 125 questions at
grade 12. Information on the characteristics of principals,
length of school day and year, school enrollment, composition of
staff, policies on tracking, curriculum, testing, special
services, parental involvement, and schoolwide problems was
collected for examinees' schools.

Taken together, the responses to these questionnaires describe
some of the current practices and emphases in education and
provide a context for understanding the students' mathematics
proficiency.

The almanacs provide average student proficiency scores for
responses to all questions asked on the students, teacher, or
school questionnaire. The unit of analysis remains the student
throughout the almanac. The responses are cross-tabulated by
various categories as well: sex, race-ethnicity, geographic
region, age, type of community, parents' educational level, type
of school (public or private), and ability of students in class.
In addition to background questions, the responses to all
cognitive questions are shown for these same groupings.

The almanacs are available on 3.5 or 5.25 inch IBM-compatible
diskettes. Those interested in obtaining the almanacs should
specify their needs and provide the required blank diskettes for
each grade for each subject to:

                          John Mathews
            National Center for Education Statistics
                      555 New Jersey Avenue
                    Washington, DC 20208-5653
                         (202) 219-1690

send to "erl-l@tcsvm"
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU