Student responses to the West Virginia Educational Standards Test (WESTEST) 2 Online Writing Assessment are scored by a computer-scoring engine. The scoring method is not widely understood among educators, and there exists a misperception that it is not comparable to hand scoring. To address these issues, the West Virginia Department of Education…

The ranking of the United States in major international tests such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is used as the driving force and rationale for the current educational reforms in the United…

Recent months have brought an ever-louder drumbeat in support of state-level participation in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), with a weaker chorus calling for states to participate in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Despite the growing infatuation with international comparisons of…

Statewide exit examinations play an important role in discussions on school effectiveness. Referring to educational governance concepts, this paper presumes a relation between varying organizational structures of statewide examinations across states, and heterogeneous effects on school actors. It is assumed that their ability to affect work in…

A new report, "The Proficiency Illusion," released last year by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute states that the tests that states use to measure academic progress under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) are creating a false impression of success, especially in reading and especially in the early grades. The report is a collaboration…

Students in grades 5 and 8 completed a state writing assessment, and their first and final drafts on the extended writing portion of the test were copied and scored using the state writing rubric. The rubric consisted of three primary traits: Content and Organization, Style and Fluency, and Language Use. Scorers were blind to the study purpose and…

When 2006 Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) scores were released in March 2007, there were many questions about the comparability of the 2006 test to earlier ISATs. The 2006 ISAT was a new test, with new items, a new format, new timing requirements, and new scoring procedures. Many people were skeptical about whether it was appropriate to…

At the request of the Superintendent of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Public School System (MCPS), Achieve conducted an evaluation of the MCPS K-12 Curriculum Frameworks and high school semester exams in English and mathematics. The review was designed to determine how well the MCPS Frameworks and exams align with Maryland state academic…