New York state high school principals and superintendents were surveyed regarding their evaluations of the statewide minimum competency testing program for high school graduation. Program data were also supplied by the principals. It was concluded that: (1) 85 percent of eleventh grade students had completed the basic competency test graduation…

This report focuses squarely on strategies for instructional improvement in American high schools. Specifically, this study examines how high schools that perform below average incorporate their state's accountability goals into their own goals, identify their challenges, and search for strategies for instructional improvement. It focuses on how…

The administrators' and teachers' manual for the New York State Preliminary Competency Test in Reading provides information on the student population to be tested; the degrees of reading power (DRP) methodology to measure students' reading comprehension; the test content; and the state reference point, a cutoff score expressed in terms of…