Thesis (M.S.)--Rowan University, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia university, 1930. / Vita. Published also as Teachers college, Columbia university, Contributions to education, no.420. Bibliography: p. 74-77.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Issued also as thesis (Ph. D.) Columbia university. / Bibliography: p. 60-61.

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 33).

No description available.

This study examines how well the qualities of good essay writing expressed in the British Columbia Ministry of Education's handbook, Using rating scales to evaluate student writing, are transmitted to teachers and students. In asking how well those values are communicated to teachers and students involved in grade twelve English examinations, the study compares the features demonstrated in the writing reference sets and specified in the Holistic scoring guide to the responses of markers, teachers and students who were surveyed concerning their familiarity with those terms and to their beliefs about what constituted a good essay. Most teachers reported instructional practices which utilized these reference sets, and students supported this assertion. The qualities described by teacher-markers such as “command of language, thoughtful, well structured, interesting argument, depth of understanding, engaging, sense of voice” were also compared to salient features of papers which they had just scored and found to correspond quite closely. Students, however, in describing the features they hoped to produce in writing a good essay, did not use the terms of the official rating scale descriptors, but instead, fell back on a vocabulary expressing the most basic features of the process approach to writing, such as “planning, webbing ideas,” and “revising.” Survey instruments used in the study were not sufficiently detailed to provide data on student comprehension of rating scale terms. Observations are made on such aspects of large-scale writing evaluations as recommended scoring practices, the need for thorough marker preparation, the vagueness of some criteria such as “voice”, and on current approaches to high school composition instruction with emphasis on modelling theory as the basis for instruction in a jurisdiction which uses reference sets of student work as standards for its rating scales. Shortcomings of the study are noted and suggestions for future research in this area are offered. The appendices include all survey forms used, results of a feature analysis of over 300 highly-rated examination essays, typescripts of student interviews, and a sample writing reference set with scale-point descriptors. / Graduate

This study set out to examine the relative influence of personal and school-based characteristics and parental involvement on mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of public school performance. A national and representative sample of parents of school-aged children (N= 2008) were asked to award a grade (A, B, C, D or F) to their community school. There is a significant lack of empirical study of the factors influencing parents’ perceptions of school performance. The present study controlled for the socioeconomic status of parents and the community school being graded. Parental involvement in schools and assisting with homework are elements of parents’ relations with schools and were controlled for in the multivariate analysis. It was found that mothers and fathers are differentially influenced by personal and school-based characteristics; and, of import, there is a negative and significant association between participation in school-based activities and a father’s perception of school performance. The opposite association with participation in school-based activities was observed for mothers. Further, perceptions of “Failing” schools are influenced to a greater extent by the socioeconomic status of the parent and of the school. The results are interpreted by gendering the relations between parents and schools, and drawing from feminist standpoint theory. Particular focus is brought to the discordant association of parental involvement and the grades awarded to schools by mothers and fathers. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

M.A. Florida State College for Women 1931

"The purpose of this paper is to study the whole problem of reporting pupil progress to parents; to identify and analyze specific methods of reporting in various sections of the United States; and finally, to recommend methods and procedures whereby desirable changes in reporting can be studied, understood and brought about cooperatively in the interests of improved teaching and learning, and in the interest of better lay support of public education"--Introduction. / "August, 1953." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: John A. Permenter, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-93).