Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

Northwest Evaluation Association regularly conducts studies of alignment between the RIT scale and the scales used for statewide achievement tests. In recent years, educational experts have put increasing emphasis on the need for triangulation of student achievement information in order to assure that important educational decisions are based on data that is robust and corroborated. Indeed, many school systems use NWEA assessments as one way in which they triangulate data from their state assessment and other tests that may be in use in their district. The catalyst for this investigation was completion of a recent study to confirm and monitor the alignment between the PACT and NWEA assessments (Cronin, 2004). For the most part it was found that the two assessments remained closely correlated and that NWEA results predicted PACT status reasonably well. Nevertheless, it was also found that performance level estimates at a few grades showed large changes and that the predictive accuracy statistics stemming from the 2004 study were both lower than those generated from the 2002 study and also lower than those gathered from most of the other state studies.(Contains 12 tables.)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert