Throughout the years, career and technical education (CTE) has focused on teaching technical competencies and related academic skills that prepare students to enter and advance in a variety of career fields and postsecondary education. Program and course descriptions are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the technical and academic skills…

This study explores the relationship between scores and educational placement levels on two academic mathematics assessment systems: The Tests of Adult Basic Education 11/12 mathematics (TABE-M) and the Texas Success Initiative Assessment mathematics (TSIA-M). The data set consisted of scores, placement levels, and demographic information for 152…

This review critiques the highly-praised and influential 2001 study, "Getting Tough? The Impact of High School Graduation Exams," which concluded that "minimum competency," or high school "graduation exams," had no effect on student achievement. The review compares the test classifications of "Getting…

Achievement tests are among the most widely used data collection tools to measure the knowledge and skill levels of individuals. For this reason, the existence of valid and reliable achievement tests that can perfectly reveal the competencies that a person should have in any discipline is of great importance. The purpose of this research is to…

In the most recent assessment by the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), approximately 19% of adults in the United States scored at or below Level 1 in literacy (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2019a). Adults who performed at Level 1 were only able to identify one key piece of information from…

Until 2014, the General Educational Development (GED®) test dominated the high school equivalency (HSE) test market throughout the United States, to the point that educational experts acknowledged the acronym "GED" had become synonymous with "high school equivalency." However, changes to the test, the way it is administered,…

The purpose of the present study was to determine if numeral knowledge--the ability to identify Arabic numerals and connect Arabic numerals to their respective quantities--mediates the relation between informal and formal mathematical knowledge. A total of 206 3- to 5-year-old preschool children were assessed on 6 informal mathematics tasks and 2…

Since 2012, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has supported educational enrichment in rural areas by awarding over $3.3 million in grants to six outstanding organizations operating in Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. In this report, the authors combine the experiences of these organizations with findings from the…

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has provided over $3.3 million in grants to outstanding providers of educational enrichment in rural areas since 2012. In extensive interviews, rural education experts in our grantee organizations shared their practical knowledge of the best ways to identify academically talented students in rural areas, provide…

Many individuals who attempt to enter teacher education programs are precluded from doing so because of an inability to pass basic skills tests. The authors examine whether these tests are simply a gate that needs to be passed through or whether they provide useful early information about how individuals are likely to perform on subsequent…

In 2001, No Child Left Behind introduced the highly qualified status for k-12 teachers, which mandated the successful scores on a series of high-stakes test; within this series is the Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST) or PRAXIS I. The PPST measures basic k-12 skills for reading, writing, and mathematics. The mathematics sub-test is a national…

In higher education the main subjects build on the knowledge acquired in high school. Research shows that students entering universities have acquired basic knowledge to different extents. It is very important to be able to apply mathematical knowledge directly. Students often treat practical knowledge separately from theoretical knowledge. They…

After surveying 1,827 students in their final year at eighty randomly selected two-year and four-year public and private institutions, American Institutes for Research (2006) reported that approximately 30 percent of students in two-year institutions and nearly 20 percent of students in four-year institutions have only basic quantitative…

There is no doubt that in the past 10 years, school culture has become a testing culture. But all the "multiple measures" do not really lead one to achieve the three most often cited goals of testing: building proficiency in basic skills, closing achievement gaps, and fostering the top-notch knowledge and skills that students will need…

The ability to do arithmetic calculations is essential to school-based learning and skill development in an information rich society. Arithmetic is a basic academic skill that is needed for learning which includes the skills such as counting, calculating, reasoning etc. that are used for performing mathematical calculations. Unfortunately, many…