Experiments that assign intact groups to treatment conditions are increasingly common in social research. In educational research, the groups assigned are often schools. The design of group-randomized experiments requires knowledge of the intraclass correlation structure to compute statistical power and sample sizes required to achieve adequate…

The educational achievement and attainment of young people in the United States has been a long-standing issue of concern. While analyses of long-term trend data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that students in the United States have made gains in reading and mathematics over the past few decades, a sizeable…

It is unsafe to estimate achievement test norms for fall testing by linear interpolation between norms for the previous spring testing and norms for the following spring. Second grade students were tested in reading and arithmetic in the fall and in the spring to provide pre-test and post-test data for evaluation of academic growth. Three…

Test scores for fall and spring administrations for two consecutive years for Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I students in the Tucson Unified School District are presented and compared. The students were given out-of-level tests: the 138 seventh-grade students and 106 eighth-grade students were given Level 2 of the…

Median test scores on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) for many District of Columbia public schools declined substantially in 1990, although this decline was not evident in reports from school officials. These declines occurred at elementary, junior high, and senior high school levels, in grades 6, 9, and 11, respectively. They also…

The accuracy of trait estimates obtained from three vertical equating methods was examined. The procedures studied included two anchor test designs and a single-group design. Data from two content areas and two grade combinations were studied. A three-parameter logistic model was used to perform the equatings. The results obtained were used to…

The Statewide Testing Program assessed the achievement of South Carolina students in grades 3, 6, and 11. The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, Form S (CTBS/S) were used to measure achievement in reading, language, mathematics, reference skills, science, and social studies. Over 126,000 students, representing 91 of South Carolina's 92 school…

Value-added models, which rate schools for effectiveness while taking into account the poverty and other socioeconomic status of the students, are generating increased interest. This paper describes the use of one such model to evaluate whether school ratings changed when three new programs were introduced: the "Target Teach" curriculum…

Standardized achievement tests and instructional accomplishment inventories involve different methodologies and cannot be equated by using conventional psychometric methods. Instructional accomplishment inventories are descriptive, and are designed to reflect the scope, sequence, and skills and emphasis in a particular instructional program.…

Three test-analysis models were used to analyze three types of simulated test score data plus the results of eight achievement tests. Chi-square goodness-of-fit statistics were used to evaluate the appropriateness of the models to the four kinds of data. Data were generated to simulate the responses of 1,000 students to 36 pseudo-items by…

Three schools in the same district were compared on the basis of achievement and attitude tests given in the third grade in 1974, and again in the third and fifth grades in 1976. Only descriptive statistics were used, since samples were known not to be random. The three schools were identified as a model of individualized instruction, a school…