REA ... Real review, Real practice, Real results. REA's Virginia Grade 8 SOL Reading & Writing Study Guide! Fully aligned with the Virginia Department of Education Standards of Learning Are you prepared to excel on this state high-stakes assessment exam? * Take the diagnostic Pretest and find out what you know and what you should know * Use REA's advice and tips to ready yourself for proper study and practice Sharpen your knowledge and skills * The book's full subject review refreshes knowledge and covers all topics on the official exam, including vocabulary, literary analysis, drafting, revising, and editing to reinforce key English language lessons * Smart and friendly lessons reinforce necessary skills * Key tutorials enhance specific abilities needed on the test * Targeted drills increase comprehension and help organize study * Color icons and graphics highlight important concepts and tasks Practice for real * Create the closest experience to test-day conditions with a full-length practice Posttest * Chart your progress with detailed explanations of each answer * Boost confidence with test-taking strategies and focused drills Ideal for Classroom, Family, or Solo Test Preparation! REA has helped generations of students study smart and excel on the important tests. REA’s study guides for state-required exams are teacher-recommended and written by experts who have mastered the test.

If Students Need to Know It, It's in This Book This book develops the English and reading comprehension skills of fifth-graders. It builds skills that will help them succeed in school and on the Virginia Standards of Learning Assessments. Why The Princeton Review? We have more than twenty years of experience helping students master the skills needed to excel on standardized tests. Each year we help more than 2 million students score higher and earn better grades. We Know the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) Assessments Our experts at The Princeton Review have analyzed the Virginia SOL English: Reading/Literature and Research Assessment, and this book provides the most up-to-date, thoroughly researched practice possible. We break down the test into individual skills to familiarize students with the test's structure, while increasing their overall skill level. We Get Results We know what it takes to succeed in the classroom and on tests. This book includes strategies that are proven to improve student performance. We provide -content review based on Virginia standards and objectives -detailed lessons, complete with skill-specific activities -two complete practice Virginia SOL English: Reading/Literature and Research Assessments For more information about our other test-preparation products for school and home, call 1-800-REVIEW-2 or visit k12.princetonreview.com.

If Students Need to Know It, It's in This Book This book develops the English and reading comprehension skills of third-graders. It builds skills that will help them succeed in school and on the Virginia Standards of Learning Assessments. Why The Princeton Review? We have more than twenty years of experience helping students master the skills needed to excel on standardized tests. Each year we help more than 2 million students score higher and earn better grades. We Know the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) Assessments Our experts at The Princeton Review have analyzed the Virginia SOL English: Reading Assessment, and this book provides the most up-to-date, thoroughly researched practice possible. We break down the test into individual skills to familiarize students with the test's structure, while increasing their overall skill level. We Get Results We know what it takes to succeed in the classroom and on tests. This book includes strategies that are proven to improve student performance. We provide -content review based on Virginia standards and objectives -detailed lessons, complete with skill-specific activities -two practice Virginia SOL English: Reading Assessments For more information about our other test-preparation products for school and home, call 1-800-REVIEW-2 or visit k12.princetonreview.com.

Education Reform in the American States is a timely evaluation of the accountability movement in American public education, culminating in the No Child Left Behind Act, federal legislation of 2002. The authors treat the current accountability movement, placing it in historical context and addressing the evolution in public education policymaking from the overwhelming emphasis on state and local discretion to increasing federal oversight and mandates related to federal funding. They provide case studies of the educational accountability movements in nine states and analyze the factors and forces which explain progress in achievement levels as measured on standardized tests and the states' prospects for meeting their NCLB targets. The book and the individual case studies acknowledge the merits of NCLB while exposing several significant flaws and unintended harmful consequences of the act, particularly its incentives for states to lower their standards in order to meet annual yearly progress targets and its threat to withdraw federal funds from districts with the highest percentage of disadvantaged students. The audience for this study includes local, state and federal education policy makers; administrators and instructors in schools of education and other teaching programs, educators; and the general public.

The Princeton Review realizes that acing the U.S. History exam is very different from getting straight As in school. The Princeton Review doesn't try to teach students everything there is to know about U.S. history--only the techniques they'll need to score higher on the exam. "There's a big difference. In Cracking the Virginia SOL EOC U.S. History, TPR will teach test takers how to think like the test makers and: Remember important historical facts using TPR's Big Picture approach to studying Eliminate incorrect answer choices by using Process of Elimination and other techniques Master the most frequently tested material with TPR's U.S. History Hit Parade Test historical knowledge with review questions that cover each time period tested ***This book includes 2 full-length simulated exams. All of TPR's sample test questions are just like the ones test takers will see on the actual End-of-Course U.S. History exam, and TPR fully explains every solution. "Contents Include: The Mystery Exams Structure and Strategies II The U.S. History Review Big Picture 1: European Exploration and Colonization Big Picture2: The New Constitution, Federalism, and Jeffersonian Democracy Big Picture 3: Jacksonian Democracy, Manifest Destiny, the Civil War, and Reconstruction Big Picture 4: The Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, and World War I (1877-1920) Big Picture 5: The Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II (1920-1945) Big Picture 6: The Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement (1945-The Near Present) The History Hit Parade III The Princeton Review Practice Tests

Modern educators are currently ideologically in one of two camps: those who see American education as heading in the right direction, and those who fear that it has gone tragically astray. For over 100 years the American educational system has been the hope of those who want to level the playing field of opportunity, yet today we continue to lag behind several industrialized countries when comparing standardized science test scores. Is this acceptable in the most advanced, affluent country on earth? Why are we not the reigning educational system on the planet? And are standardized test scores even the best way to assess the type of learning it takes to lead the world in science achievement? The nature of science does not lend itself well to bubble tests, yet these assessments are all we have to “prove” that our students are good scientists. This book was born of a science teacher’s frustration brought on by the standardized testing movement’s reliance on high-stakes tests as the sole measurement tool with which to measure achievement. Science by it’s very nature relies on original thinking for discovery and innovation. How can this be measured by a bubble test? And how do these high stakes tests affect minorities, girls, those with disabilities and at risk students? September 11, 2001 alerted us that we Americans can be less creative than our enemies, an unprecedented event in American history. What if changing the way we teach and assess science learning better prepares our citizens for creative preventions and solutions to world problems, instead of creating citizens who have to react to world problems? The nature of science begs a better way.

Describes strategies teachers can use to promote reading comprehension in students from kindergarten through eighth grade; and includes examples of student work, illustrations, and other reference tools.

Educational Measurement has been the bible in its field since the first edition was published by ACE in 1951. The importance of this fourth edition of Educational Measurement is to extensively update and extend the topics treated in the previous three editions. As such, the fourth edition documents progress in the field and provides critical guidance to the efforts of new generations of researchers and practitioners. Edited by Robert Brennan and jointly sponsored by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the National Council on Measurement in Education, the fourth edition provides in-depth treatments of critical measurement topics, and the chapter authors are acknowledged experts in their respective fields. Educational measurement researchers and practitioners will find this text essential, and those interested in statistics, psychology, business, and economics should also find this work to be of very strong interest. Topics covered are divided into three subject areas: theory and general principles; construction, administration, and scoring; and applications. The first part of the book covers the topics of validation, reliability, item response theory, scaling and norming, linking and equating, test fairness, and cognitive psychology. Part two includes chapters on test development, test administration, performance assessment, setting performance standards, and technology in testing. The final section includes chapters on second language testing, testing for accountability in K-12 schools, standardized assessment of individual achievement in K-12 schools, higher education admissions testing, monitoring educational progress, licensure and certification testing, and legal and ethical issues.

Tradition, community, and pride are fundamental aspects of the history of Appalachia, and the language of the region is a living testament to its rich heritage. Despite the persistence of unflattering stereotypes and cultural discrimination associated with their style of speech, Appalachians have organized to preserve regional dialects -- complex forms of English peppered with words, phrases, and pronunciations unique to the area and its people. Talking Appalachian examines these distinctive speech varieties and emphasizes their role in expressing local history and promoting a shared identity. Beginning with a historical and geographical overview of the region that analyzes the origins of its dialects, this volume features detailed research and local case studies investigating their use. The contributors explore a variety of subjects, including the success of African American Appalachian English and southern Appalachian English speakers in professional and corporate positions. In addition, editors Amy D. Clark and Nancy M. Hayward provide excerpts from essays, poetry, short fiction, and novels to illustrate usage. With contributions from well-known authors such as George Ella Lyon and Silas House, this balanced collection is the most comprehensive, accessible study of Appalachian language available today.