Performance Assessment in Science as a Tool to Enhance the Picture of Student Learning

The Iowa Assessment Project was funded by the National Science Foundation to explore the feasibility of combining the expertise of science teachers, science educators, and test developers to build innovative performance assessments that complement traditional, norm-referenced, multiple-choice science tests. The science teachers, graduate students, and science educators designed and tested performance assessment tasks to enhance the picture of science understanding in students through multiple points of evidence. This paper describes the design of four science performance tasks for Grade 9 students and the relationship between their performance on these tasks and multiple-choice items in the Iowa Tests of Educational Development. Students and schools used to develop the tasks were not included in the verification sample.     

Unicity in piecewise polynomial -approximation via an algorithm

Our main result shows that certain generalized convex functions on a real interval possess a unique best approximation from the family of piecewise polynomial functions of fixed degree with varying knots. This result was anticipated by Kioustelidis in [11]; however the proof given there is nonconstructive and uses topological degree as the primary tool, in a fashion similar to the proof the comparable result for the case in [5]. By contrast, the proof given here proceeds by demonstrating the global convergence of an algorithm to calculate a best approximation over the domain of all possible knot vectors. The proof uses the contraction mapping theorem to simultaneously establish convergence and uniqueness. This algorithm was suggested by Kioustelidis [10]. In addition, an asymptotic uniqueness result and a nonuniqueness result are indicated, which analogize known results in the case.

     

Estimating need and demand for prehospital care

Models estimating demand and need for emergency transportation services are developed. These models can provide reliable estimates which can be used for planning purposes, by complementing and/or substituting for historical data. The model estimating demand requires only four independent variables: population in the area, employment in the area, and two indicators of socioeconomic status which can be obtained from census data. The model can be used to estimate demand according to 4 operational categories and 11 clinical categories. The parameters of the model are calibrated with 1979 data from 82 ambulance services covering over 200 minor civil divisions in Southwestern Pennsylvania. This model was tested with data from another 55 minor civil divisions, also in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and it provided good estimates to total demand. The model to estimate need evolves from the demand model. It enables planners to estimate unmet need occurring in the region. The effect of emergency transportation service (ETS) provider characteristics on demand was also investigated. Statistical tests show that, for purposes of forecasting demand, when the sociodemographic factors are taken into account, provider characteristics are not significant.     

An existence-convergence theorem for a class of iterative methods

LetM ₀, characterized byx _k+1=G ₀(x _k),k?0,x ₀ prescribed, be an iterative method for the solution of the operator equationF(x)=0, whereF:X → X is a given operator andX is a Banach space. Let ω:X → X be a given operator, and let the methodM _mbe characterized byx _x+1,m =G _m(x _k,m),k?0,x _0,m prescribed, where $$G_i (x) = G_0 (x) - \sum\limits_{j = 0}^{i - 1} { F'(\omega (x))^{ - 1} F(G_j (x)), i = 1, . . . ,m,} $$ in whichG ₀:X → X is a given operator andF′:X → L(X) is the Fréchet derivative ofF. Sufficient conditions for the existence of a solutionx* _m ofF(x)=0 to which the sequence (x _k,m) generated from methodM _mconverges are given, together with a rate-of-convergence estimate.