States increasingly are incorporating Kindergarten Entry Assessments (KEAs) into their comprehensive assessment systems with the goal of helping educators identify gaps in children's competencies, target instruction to children's individual needs, engage parents to better support their child's learning, and identify needs for expanding and…

States increasingly are incorporating Kindergarten Entry Assessments (KEAs) into their comprehensive assessment systems with the goal of helping educators identify gaps in children's competencies, target instruction to children's individual needs, engage parents to better support their child's learning, and identify needs for expanding and…

This document contains materials directly related to the actual reading test of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), including the reading rubric, released passages, selected-response questions with answer keys, performance tasks, and scored samples of students' responses to the tasks. All of these items may be duplicated to…

Beginning in 1999, all of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) had to be aligned with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards. This handbook describes the PSSA mathematics assessment. Following an overview of the PSSA, the second chapter focuses on the development and scoring of the mathematics assessment. Administering the assessment…

Beginning in 1999, all of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) had to be aligned with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards. This handbook describes the PSSA writing assessment, which was designed to measure individual student performance and to influence instruction. The guide contains a chart of the Pennsylvania Academic Standards…

Beginning in 1999, all of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) had to be aligned with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards. This handbook describes the PSSA reading assessment. It contains samples and instructions for developing assessment items for grades 5, 8, and 11. Although designed for teachers, the Handbook is meant to be a…

Results are presented from a study of portfolio use for large-scale assessment in the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) public schools that are more encouraging for the use of this form of assessment than many other studies have been. Requirements for the psychometric integrity of portfolio assessment are discussed. (SLD)

A project continued activity to improve the occupational competency assessment program for evaluating and certifying vocational education teachers. Development of new testing was continued by Temple University, The Pennsylvania State University, and University of Pittsburgh. Workshops for test developers were conducted to ensure standardization of…

Gender differences were examined in results from the holistic model reading tests developed by the Pennsylvania State Department of Education. Patterns of differences were examined and interpreted within the context of previous reading research. Data were collected from the Testing for Essential Learning and Literacy Skills (TELLS) reading tests…

Pennsylvania's "Testing for Essential Learning and Literacy Skills" (TELLS) program was instituted during the 1984-85 school year, to identify reading and mathematics problems early in a student's school career. This document describes the intent and legislation behind TELLS, the implementation of the test, population tested, properties…

This guide begins with a series of questions and answers which introduce Pennsylvania's Educational Quality Assessment (EQA) Inventory as a 188-to 190-item multiple choice test for fifth, eighth, and eleventh grades. Items are selected from a 400-item bank using matrix sampling procedures. Test results are analyzed at the school level; no…