Political and legislative pressures have posed a number of measurement issues and challenges to the development of sound, valid voluntary national tests (VNTs). This paper focuses on what appear to be the most difficult technical issues related to the VNT proposed by President Clinton in 1997. Technical issues refer to psychometric issues, as…

This paper discusses higher-order cognitive skills, provides examples of appropriate test item content in various subject areas, and describes higher-level cognitive skills which might be tested by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Higher-order cognitive skills are said to be more difficult to measure than simpler skills;…

In assessing the quality of science teaching for an effort such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), it is important to understand what is meant by scientific thinking--the search for explanations. Instruction should involve higher-order cognitive skill development, but it is difficult to measure reasoning and understanding…