Alternative forms of evaluating student progress are changing testing or assessment in U.S. schools. From the teacher-made to the standardized test, the familiar over-emphasis on multiple-choice items is giving way to expanded generative formats in which students are called upon to demonstrate mastery through applications in which they use complex…

Reviews alternative assessment practices in several nations and questions whether these techniques should be used in the United States. Focuses on moderation, a technique in which trained evaluators adjust grades to ensure equitable distribution among participating schools. Concludes that evaluation in art education presents special problems and…

The problems existing during the reorganization of the Cleveland School District into a unitary administration are presented from the perspective of the head of the Research and Analysis Department. The district had been fighting a desegregation case for 9 years and operating in a receivership with a triple bureaucracy imposed upon it (the normal…

Contends that performance assessment, or authentic assessment, is changing the way teachers evaluate and grade students. Describes the differences between traditional assessment and performance assessment. Argues that performance assessment is particularly suited for the social studies curriculum. (CFR)

Innovations, Educational Testing Service (ETS's) corporate magazine, provides information on educational assessment for educators, school leaders, researchers and policymakers around the world. Each issue focuses on a particular theme in assessment. This issue explores the question, "What makes a great teacher?" Articles in this issue…

Part 2 of the Alberta (Canada) Education's "Program of Studies for Elementary Schools 1978" (amended 1981), this bulletin describes the planned design, parts, and scoring of the grade six English language arts achievement test to be written in June 1988, and based on curriculum specifications for an integration of thinking and…

This report discusses the many issues that need to be considered as states and districts begin to design and implement alternate assessments, which are used for students with severe cognitive delays or multiple disabilities or students who require such significant accommodations that the validity of the test would be compromised. The report…