The Indiana Department of Education's (IDOE's) Accessibility and Accommodations Information for Statewide Assessments is a document intended for school-level personnel and decision-making teams as they prepare for and implement Indiana statewide assessments. Information is provided for school personnel as a reference to inform guidance on…

How do attitudes and beliefs about assessment affect teaching and learning in your school? This document is intended to help school and district leaders understand these dynamics. While it is not designed for use as a step-by-step toolkit to support evaluation, this document does provide a foundation for leaders to learn more about their school or…

Great teachers recognize great assessments. As policy and education leaders work to make sure state tests are measuring the problem-solving, writing, and critical-thinking skills students need for success, they should convene and rely on teachers to review test quality and help answer the question: Do the questions on our state test reflect…

Reviews the "Quick-Score Achievement Test" (Q-SAT), an individually administered measure of school achievement for use with students aged 7-18, which has two forms and yields scores for reading, writing, arithmetic, facts, and general achievement. (SKC)

A study investigating possible sex bias, concerning both student and standardized-patient genders, in an objective structured clinical examination found that neither men nor women were afforded an advantage by patient or test location. However, women's scores on tests administered by females were higher than corresponding men's scores. (MSE)

A study investigated the performance of 6 successive medical school classes on 80 standardized-patient case examinations, looking for effects of student or standardized-patient gender on scores. Results showed no interaction of any practical consequence. Cases with gender-related concern (e.g., breast problems) also did not differentiate between…

The processes used in developing the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) to eliminate cultural bias while still measuring skills related to academic success are described, including test item writing, pretesting, and validation. Test items from 1908, 1927, 1947, and 1980 tests illustrate the evolution of the examinations. (MSE)

A study assessed the feasibility of sequential testing of medical students using standardized patients. Sequential testing passes students who score well on the first segment of the test thus eliminating additional student-standardized patient encounters. Subjects were six classes of Southern Illinois University students (n=404). Results strongly…

The issue of interpretation of standard test scores of minorities is discussed. The history of the issue is reviewed. The National Academy of Science's decision to reinterpret the scores of minorities is summarized. (YP)

Because test scores reflect not only a student's knowledge in a given area, but also his or her familiarity with cues present in the test, and because tests are so prevalent and important in schools, there is a great need to teach test wiseness skills. It is ethical to do so if no material from the final test is included. Certain principles and…

All teacher education students in Texas must pass three minimum competency examinations to be admitted to a teacher education program. The Pre-Professional Skills Tests (PPST) contains three separate tests in reading, mathematics, and writing. West Texas State University requires all entering freshmen to submit scores from the American College…

Examined 6 widely used grade-8 standardized tests for content, required processes, and level to determine their alignment with the 5-8 NCTM "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards." Concluded that these tests inadequately covered the 5-8 standards. A follow-up study examined items from newly developed and foreign tests to demonstrate the…

In response to concerns raised by principals at both the elementary and intermediate levels regarding the amount of instructional time consumed by students taking tests which were not related to day-to-day instruction, a study was conducted of the amount of time spent preparing to give such tests and actually administering them, and the manner in…

A study investigated possible differences in standardized patient examination scores for three groups of undergraduate (n=176) and graduate (n=221) medical students assessed at different sites over two years. Results show no systematic change in scores over testing dates, suggesting no problems with breach of test security. (MSE)

Research suggests that special tests of reasoning ability are superfluous. Reading comprehension and algebra scores on common aptitude and achievement tests are highly correlated with scores on several reasoning tests. Furthermore, three programs in reasoning skills have been shown to improve reading comprehension scores in various settings. (MCG)