Biblioteca Digital

O ensino de língua inglesa tem se iniciado cada vez mais cedo nas escolas regulares brasileiras (SCHEIFER, 2008; COSTA, 2008). A expansão desse ensino incentiva as pesquisas na área, que revelam, dentre outras coisas, a escassez de estudos sobre o livro didático de língua inglesa (RAMOS; ROSELLI, 2008) e sobre avaliação em língua estrangeira para crianças (REA-DICKINS; RIXON, 1997; SCARAMUCCI et al., 2008; COSTA, 2008). Esses dados nos chamaram a atenção, tendo em vista a forte influência dos livros didáticos no processo de ensino-aprendizagem de línguas (RICHARDS, 2002; PINTO; PESSOA, 2009; DIAS, 2009, dentre outros), bem como das avaliações na vida dos alunos, no ambiente escolar e na sociedade como um todo (SCARAMUCCI, 1998/1999; 2000/2001; 2004; 2006; HUGHES, 2003; SHOHAMY, 2004; MCNAMARA, 2000), podendo causar tanto impactos positivos quanto negativos. Propomo-nos, então, neste trabalho qualitativo e de cunho interpretativista, a analisar as avaliações de rendimento sugeridas por alguns livros didáticos de inglês voltados para alunos do Ensino Fundamental I. Como as avaliações de rendimento visam a observar se os objetivos de ensino foram alcançados, nosso objetivo é analisar se as concepções de linguagem...

Cognitive skills predict academic performance, so schools that improve academic performance might also improve cognitive skills. To investigate the impact schools have on both academic performance and cognitive skills, we related standardized achievement test scores to measures of cognitive skills in a large sample (N=1,367) of 8th-grade students attending traditional, exam, and charter public schools. Test scores and gains in test scores over time correlated with measures of cognitive skills. Despite wide variation in test scores across schools, differences in cognitive skills across schools were negligible after controlling for 4th-grade test scores. Random offers of enrollment to over-subscribed charter schools resulted in positive impacts of such school attendance on math achievement, but had no impact on cognitive skills. These findings suggest that schools that improve standardized achievement tests do so primarily through channels other than cognitive skills.

This third volume in the five-part National Assessments of Educational Achievement series, focuses on practical issues in the implementation of a national assessment. These include the representation of key educational stakeholders, required personnel and facilities, and the sequence of administrative activities in implementing an assessment. Particular attention is focused on sampling, such as defining the population to be assessed, elements of sampling theory, and the selection of schools and students to take part in an assessment. Readers are guided through the selection of a sample by working on a set of concrete tasks presented in the text, using data files in an accompanying CD. One section of Volume 3 is devoted to typical tasks involved in preparing, validating and managing data. Users are expected to develop competence in data preparation skills by carrying out the practical exercises in the CD. They are also shown how to complete important pre-analysis steps such as compute survey weights, calculate means and their sampling errors, and how to deal with non-responses and oversize and undersize schools. This volume is intended primarily for teams who are responsible for conducting national assessments and graduate students interested in technical aspects of large-scale surveys.

This book, the fifth and final volume of the National Assessments of Educational Achievement series, draws on the experiences of over forty countries that have implemented a national assessment. It considers the role of contextual factors which impinge on the use of assessment findings. The attachment of sanctions to performance on a national assessment and use of assessment results for accountability are discussed. Key components of a national assessment report are specified . Other instruments to communicate findings are described. Uses of national assessment findings for policy, management, teaching, and raising public awareness are described. A number of ways in which the use and value of national assessments could be optimized are proposed. This volume is intended primarily for teams who are responsible for conducting national assessments and policy makers responsible for the dissemination and use of national assessment results.

This paper proposes two related measures of educational inequality: one for educational achievement and another for educational opportunity. The former is the simple variance (or standard deviation) of test scores. Its selection is informed by consideration of two measurement issues that have typically been overlooked in the literature: the implications of the standardization of test scores for inequality indices, and the possible sample selection biases arising from the Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) sampling frame. The measure of inequality of educational opportunity is given by the share of the variance in test scores that is explained by pre-determined circumstances. Both measures are computed for the 57 countries in which PISA surveys were conducted in 2006. Inequality of opportunity accounts for up to 35 percent of all disparities in educational achievement. It is greater in (most of) continental Europe and Latin America than in Asia, Scandinavia, and North America. It is uncorrelated with average educational achievement and only weakly negatively correlated with per capita gross domestic product. It correlates negatively with the share of spending in primary schooling...

Increasing the share of vocational secondary schooling has been a mainstay of development policy for decades, perhaps nowhere more so than in formerly socialist countries. The transition, however, led to significant restructuring of school systems, including a declining share of vocational students. Exposing more students to a general curriculum could improve academic abilities. This paper analyzes Poland s significant improvement in international achievement tests and the restructuring of the education system that expanded general schooling to test the hypothesis that delayed vocational streaming improves outcomes. Using propensity score matching and differences-in-differences estimates, the authors show that delayed vocationalization had a positive and significant impact on student performance on the order of one standard deviation.

Developing tests and questionnaires for a national assessment of educational achievement addresses the design of two types of data collection instruments: student achievement tests and background questionnaires. Part one covers the development of an assessment framework and a test blueprint, item writing, pre testing, and final test layout. Part two delineates comparable stages and activities in the construction of background questionnaires, which are used to gather information from students, teachers, head teachers, or parents on variables that might help explain differences in student performance on the achievement test. Part three describes how to design a manual for test administration to help ensure that all students take the test under standardized conditions. The compact disc (CD) that accompanies this book offered examples of well-designed test items, questionnaire items, and administration manuals drawn from national and international assessments and is meant to showcase the variety of ways in which assessment teams have approached the design of these instruments.

This report presents results of the application of SABER teachers in Papua New Guinea. It describes Papua New Guinea’s performance in each of the eight teacher policy goals, alongside comparative information on education systems that have consistently scored highly on international student achievement tests and have participated in SABER-Teachers. Additional detailed descriptive information on the teachers policies of the education systems of Papua New Guinea and other education systems can be found on the SABER-teachers website.

This report presents results of the application of SABER teachers in Samoa. It describes Samoa’s performance with respect to each of the eight teacher policy goals, alongside comparative information from education systems that have consistently scored highly on international student achievement tests and have participated in SABER-Teachers. Additional detailed descriptive information on the teacher policies of the education systems of Samoa and other countries can be found on the SABER-teachers website.

This report presents results of the application of the SABER-teachers tool in Solomon Islands. It describes the performance of Solomon Islands’ education system in achieving each of the eight teacher policy goals, alongside comparative information from education systems that have consistently scored highly on international student achievement tests and have participated in the SABER-Teachers initiative. Additional detailed descriptive information on the teacher policies of the education systems of Solomon Islands and other countries can be found on the SABER-teachers website.

Indigenous knowledge (IK) can act as a powerful tool in a learning environment to teach students. Conventional curricula, and achievement tests in many countries, however, do not support students' learning based on their IK. Learning environments need to be adapted to help students build on their indigenous communities' knowledge, and by recognizing students' culture and value systems. Educators can further this type of education by combining appropriate pedagogical techniques1. The note presents various strategies that can help educators recognize the IK that students bring with them to learning environments, and use this as a stepping-stone to help them succeed academically. In addition, three educational programs that have successfully integrated IK into their projects are highlighted.

This paper has two primary objectives. The first objective is to describe our method for predicting the counterfactual outcomes, and explain the reasons for this choice. The second is to present estimates of the counterfactual outcomes. The paper contains the following sections. Section two provides a description of the voucher system before the introduction of SEP (Subvencion Escolar Preferencial program, or Preferential School Subsidy), an explanation of the main components of SEP, and a summary of other educational reforms currently undergoing Parliamentary review, for which SEP may serve as a valuable pilot. In section three, we present the methodological approach employed in this paper to predict the counterfactual outcomes to which actual outcomes under SEP will be compared. Section four describes the data on students and schools used in this paper. This section also provides information on the distributions of grade four priority students and non-priority students among the nation's three types of elementary schools in the years 2005-2007 and predictions of what these distributions will have been in 2008 in the absence of SEP. Section five describes the distributions of achievement of priority students and non-priority students on SIMCE tests of Spanish...

In the past, research findings indicated that most of the differences in student learning were due to socioeconomic factors, and that, therefore, the effect of direct educational interventions to reduce learning inequality was very limited. However, the authors show that learning achievement could increase through appropriately designed, and reasonably well-implemented interventions. An examination of Mexico's PARE program reveals that an increase in learning achievement could be possible for rural, and indigenous schools. The authors' overall conclusion is that supply-side interventions can have substantial effects on the learning achievement of children in indigenous, and rural schools in poor areas. But greater attention needs to be paid to the poorest of the disadvantaged children. This positive conclusion, however, should be tempered by results of the urban sample, confirming earlier findings of the negative relationship between PARE, and student learning growth.

This paper assembles a panel data set that measures cognitive achievement for 128 countries around the world from 1965 to 2010 in 5-year intervals. The data set is constructed from international achievement tests, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, which have become increasingly available since the late 1990s. These international assessments are linked to regional ones, such as the South and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring of Educational Quality, the Programme d'Analyse des Systemes Educatifs de la Confemen, and the Laboratorio Latinoamericano de Evaluacion de la Calidad de la Educacion, in order to produce one of the first globally comparable data sets on student achievement. In particular, the data set is one of the first to include achievement in developing countries, including 29 African countries and 19 Latin American countries. The paper also provides a first attempt at using the data set to identify causal factors that boost achievement. The results show that key drivers of global achievement are civil rights and economic freedom across all countries...

This introductory book describes the main features of national and international assessments, both of which became extremely popular tools for determining the quality of education in the 1990s and 2000s. This increase in popularity reflects two important developments. First, it reflects increasing globalization and interest in global mandates, including Education for All (UNESCO 2000). Second, it represents an overall shift in emphasis in assessing the quality of education from a concern with inputs (such as student participation rates, physical facilities, curriculum materials, and teacher training) to a concern with outcomes. This emphasis on outcomes can, in turn, be considered an expression of concern with the development of human capital in the belief (a) that knowledge is replacing raw materials and labor as resources in economic development and (b) that the availability of human knowledge and skills is critical in determining a country's rate of economic development and its competitiveness in an international market. The purposes and main features of national assessments are described in chapter 2. The reasons for carrying out a national assessment are considered in chapter 3...

This report aims to identify the determinants of learning in Mexico, focusing on equity, cross-country comparisons and national studies. The present report provides new analytical work on the determinants of learning using international and national assessments, as well as new work on the returns to quality of education and an assessment of media coverage of international assessments. The report is organized as follows: Chapter 1 reviews the existing international and Mexican literature on education quality and the determinants of learning. Chapter 2 presents an overview of the state of education in Mexico. Chapter 3 discusses the analysis of the National Assessments (Estandures Nacionales) from 1998 to 2000 and the results of the analysis of PISA 2000 and PISA 2003 data. Finally, Chapter 4 concludes the main report with an agenda for action, which responds to the education situation in Mexico. The report's main message is that Mexico needs to increase secondary school enrollment rates. The country continues to do well at maintaining equity in terms of the impact of family background on scores and the very low dispersion between top and bottom achievers, which is unusual for a Latin American country participating in international achievement tests. To improve quality...

Bulgaria implemented sweeping decentralization and efficiency-focused reforms in basic education in 2007 and 2008. The education system adjusted to the negative demographic trends by optimizing the network of schools (closing and merging schools), introducing per-capita based financing and delegating significant financial and decision-making autonomy to school principals. This policy reform package produced a number of benefits for the education sector; it accrued savings of over 100 million BGN and increased wages by 46 percent and reallocation of resources for capital investment (World Bank 2010). Despite the government's impressive achievements in terms of spending efficiency and high enrollment, lingering concerns remain about the quality and equity of the education system. The country has seen a negative trend in student learning outcomes as measured by international assessments. At the request of the Government of Bulgaria, the World Bank has implemented its newly developed tool for assessment and benchmarking of policies and programs affecting teacher's effectiveness Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) teachers. The key findings and policy options outlined in the present report are intended to inform the finalization of the new draft law and the development of the bylaws regulating teachers' policies in Bulgaria. This report presents results of the application of SABER-teachers in Bulgaria. It describes Bulgaria's performance in each of the eight teacher policy goals...

Achieving the right teacher policies to ensure that every classroom has a motivated, supported, and competent teacher remains a challenge, because evidence on the impacts of many teacher policies remains insufficient and scattered. Systems approach for better education results (SABER) - teachers, aims to help fill this gap by collecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and disseminating comprehensive information on teacher policies in primary and secondary education systems around the world. SABER - teachers' collects data on ten core teacher policy areas to offer a comprehensive descriptive overview of the teacher policies that are in place in each participating education system. SABER - teachers analyzes the teacher policy data collected to assess each education system s progress in achieving eight teacher policy goals: (1) setting clear expectations for teachers; (2) attracting the best into teaching; (3) preparing teachers with useful training and experience; (4) matching teachers skills with students' needs; (5) leading teachers with strong principals; (6) monitoring teaching and learning; (7) supporting teachers to improve instruction; and (8) motivating teachers to perform. By classifying countries according to their performance on each of the eight teacher policy goals...

Achieving the right teacher policies to ensure that every classroom has a motivated, supported, and competent teacher remains a challenge, because evidence on the impacts of many teacher policies remains insufficient and scattered. Systems approach for better education results (SABER) - teachers, aims to help fill this gap by collecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and disseminating comprehensive information on teacher policies in primary and secondary education systems around the world. SABER - teachers' collects data on ten core teacher policy areas to offer a comprehensive descriptive overview of the teacher policies that are in place in each participating education system. SABER - teachers analyzes the teacher policy data collected to assess each education system's progress in achieving eight teacher policy goals: (1) setting clear expectations for teachers; (2) attracting the best into teaching; (3) preparing teachers with useful training and experience; (4) matching teachers' skills with students' needs; (5) leading teachers with strong principals; (6) monitoring teaching and learning; (7) supporting teachers to improve instruction; and (8) motivating teachers to perform. By classifying countries according to their performance on each of the eight teacher policy goals...

Burton, Suzanne L.; The purpose of this study was to contribute to the body of research on the singing achievement of students. Through a quasi-experimental design using two intact groups, the research question addressed second grade students??? (N=80) singing achievement when singing a major tonality criterion song or a pentatonic tri-chord criterion song. The researcher collected samples from Group A (n=40), which sang the major tonality song and Group B (n=40), which sang the pentatonic tri-chord song. On five different occasions, the researcher taught the criterion songs to the two groups with a scripted procedure, using a combination of general music techniques including holistic and phrase-by-phrase singing along with movement activities. During the sixth visit, the researcher reviewed the criterion songs with each group. Students were individually audio-recorded singing the entire criterion song that they learned over the 5-week period. Three independent judges analyzed the song samples using the researcher created and vetted Singing Achievement Measure (SAM) that was comprised of four 4-point descriptive rating scales and one 2-point rating scale. Interjudge reliability (r=.94), descriptive statistics, and the intercorrelations of SAM criteria were calculated. Data were analyzed through a two-sample t-Test (p < .05). Results indicated that there was no significant difference between the singing achievement of Group A and Group B. Principle Component Analysis was calculated and confirmed that the scores for each of the five criteria were similar between Groups A and B. This study has the potential to inform music educators about the effect of song repertoire choice on students??? singing achievement.; University of Delaware...