California Assessment Program

Why do so many individuals have trouble solving story problems Both children and adults apparently have adequate computational skills. If you give them some numbers and a specified arithmetic operation, they can readily carry out the appropriate steps of the algorithm. Much evidence supports this claim, including large-scale evaluations such as those carried out by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the California Assessment Program (CAP). Troubles abound only when problems are couched in stories, as shown in many research studies (see, e.g., some of the research described in Silver, 1985). As Kintsch (1988) points out, a key aspect of the difficulty of story problems lies in the relational and situational details contained in them. 

A second common arena in which students encounter story problems is the standardized test. The analysis here is based upon the CAP tests given to every third-, sixth-, and eighth-grade student enrolled in California public schools in 1989. Each test had multiple forms and contained many arithmetic story problems. A full description of the tests can be found in the reports issued annually by the California Department of Education (e.g., California Assessment Program, 1986). 

An example of how novel items can fail to address key schemas may be informative. This example derives from the California Assessment Program (CAP), which for several years was a national leader in the movement to develop open-ended questions for mathematics assessment. As part of the CAP Mathematics Advisory Committee, I worked with the rest of the committee in reviewing items which had been field-tested to determine their suitability, including those that were used in the first statewide... 

All responses in this figure are summarized from those reported in the California Assessment Program s, 4 Question of Thinking (1989). 

Figure 10.1. Examples of two open-ended items used by the California Assessment Program (Items reprinted from A Question of Thinking, with permission from the California State Department of Education, copyright 1989)...

Both the items and the responses are taken from A Question of Thinking (California Assessment Program, 1989). A fuller discussion of these items and others used in the California assessment is provided therein. 

California Assessment Program (1986). Annual report 1985-86. Sacramento California State Department of Education. 

Extension Toxicology Network (EXTOXNET). 1996, June (revised). Diuron. Pesticide Information Profiles. A Pesticide Information Project of Cooperative Extension Offices of Cornell University, Oregon State University, the University of Idaho, and the University of California at Davis and the Institute for Environmental Toxicology, Michigan State University USDA/Extension Service/National Agricultural Pesticide Impact Assessment Program, http //extoxnet.orst.edu/pips/diuron.htm (accessed May 8, 2006). 

Turner, B. Powell, S. Miller, N. Melvin, J. A Field Study of Fog and Dry Deposition as Sources of Inadvertent Pesticide Residues on Row Crops Report of the Environmental Hazard Assessment Program California Department of Food and Agriculture Sacramento, CA, November 1989. 

Agricultural Pesticide Residues in California Well Water Development and Summary of a Well Inventory Data Base for Non-Point Sources , Environmental Hazards Assessment Program, Cal. Dept. Fd. Ag., Sacramento, CA, 1985. 

California Department of Food and Agriculture, Environmental Hazards Assessment Program, Sacramento, CA 95814... 

Cohen, D.B., and Bowers, G.W. Water Quality and Pesticides A California Risk Assessment Program (Yol. 1), State Water Resources Control Board, Toxic Substances Control Program, Sacramento, CA, November, 1984. 

Water Quality and Pesticides A California Risk Assessment Program (Volume 1)", California State Water Resources Control Board, 1984. 

RG Burau. Kinetics of transformations of arsenicals in soils under oxidative conditions. Final Report to Western Region Pesticide Impact Assessment Program, Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA, 1981. 

Popendorf, H.J. Lefflngwell, J.T. McLean, H.R. Zwelg, G. "Pesticide Exposure to Strawberry Pickers, 1981 Studies" California project report to Pesticide Hazard Assessment Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1982. 

Hazardous Waste Reduction Checklist and Assessment Manualfor the Metal FinishingJndusty, California Department of Health Services, Alternative Technology Division, Toxic Substances Control Program, Sacramento, Calif., 1990. 

Additionally, the EPA pubhshes a newsletter entitled Pollution Prevention News that contains information including EPA news, technologies, program updates, and case studies. The EPA s Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratoiy and the Center for Environmental Research Information has pubhshed several guidance documents, developed in cooperation with the California Department of Health Services. The manuals supplement generic waste reduction information presented in the EPA s Waste Minimization Opportunity Assessment Manual (Ref. 9). 

Safety Monitor is an interactive computer program (Stamm, 1996) that performs real-time assessments of configuration-specific plant accident risk. Originally used at Southern California Edison s San Onofre station in 1994, further development was sponsored by three nuclear utilities and EPRI, to include shutdown operation and expanded user features. It will be enhanced to calculate large early release frequency (a Level 2 risk). 

Note The souree for the above risk values is Table III-7, Preliminary Caneer Poteuey Values for Uie Air Toxies Hot Spots aet, found in California Air Pollution Control Offieers Assoeiation, Air Toxics Hot Spots Program, Revised 1192 Risk Assessment Guidelines," page III-28, published Oetober 1993. 

Production via Biomass Gasification. Advanced Energy Pathways (AEP) Project, Task 4.1 Technology Assessments of Vehicle Fuels and Technologies, Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program, California Energy Commission, UC Davis, Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis). 

Dr Joan Ogden is Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, Davis, and Director of the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program at the campus s Institute of Transportation Studies. Her primary research interest is the technical and economic assessment of new energy technologies, especially in the areas of alternative fuels, fuel cells, renewable energy and low carbon energy systems. She received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Maryland. 

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