This qualitative case study examined the process Northcentral Technical College (NTC), a two-year institution, navigated to design and implement a standardized prior learning assessment (PLA) program. With the projected labor market shortage, PLA is one strategy colleges have been recommended to use to provide the opportunity for students to apply…

High-stakes, standardized testing plays an important role in the lives of many students as they apply to college and compete for scholarships. In states where college readiness measures, like the ACT® test, are used for school and district accountability, the ACT scores of all students, whether college-bound or not, are a top priority for school…

In the fall of 2014, students took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) to help determine their level of readiness for college. The PSAT/NMSQT 2014 State Summary Reports summarize the characteristics, scores and educational plans of the Class of 2016 and Class of 2017.

In the fall of 2014, students took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) to help determine their level of readiness for college. The PSAT/NMSQT 2014 State Summary Reports summarize the characteristics, scores and educational plans of the Class of 2016 and Class of 2017.

This symposium discussed the problems school systems have with their testing programs, and presented as a model for discussion the approach used by the Madison (Wisconsin) Public Schools to redesign their system-wide testing program. The symposium looks at the traditional school district testing program and finds it dysfunctional and inadequate.…

This paper provides information on testing programs for elementary and secondary school students that are administered or coordinated by the Office of Educational Accountability within the Wisconsin State Department of Public Instruction. The first section provides background and definitions of assessment alternatives, including various types of…

A review of the work of an affective sub-committee of the Nucleus Testing Committee is provided. Proposed recommendations of the sub-committee are that: (1) the committee as a group identify an important question in the affective domain and design a testing project by which to gather data to answer the question; (2) a set of guidelines for the use…

The city-wide standardized testing program of Madison Public Schools was reviewed by a committee of a cross-section of school system educators as part of a total effort to design a testing program more sensitive to the needs of the system. As a result, standardized testing was reduced to reading (grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8) and mathematics (grade…

The nature of educational evaluation and its interaction with policy in six state departments of education is examined. Case reports of research and evaluation units are presented for Virginia (by Gerald W. Bracey), Michigan (by David L. Donovan and Stanley A. Rumbaugh), Washington (by Alfred F. Rasp, Jr.), South Carolina (by Paul D. Sandifer),…

The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to discuss the variety of factors which should be considered in establishing a testing program; and (2) to summarize some of the basic features of testing programs in Wisconsin public school districts. An effective district-wide testing program should consist of at least the following seven elements:…

Steps in the development of a Nucleus Testing Committee to assist in the development of a system-wide testing program in the Madison, Wisconsin, school system are described. Over 60 participants were selected for the committee, using the following selection guidelines: interest in the project and the role to be assumed, commitment to the school…

The activities of the Nucleus Testing Committee, particularly its Curriculum Related Subcommittee, of the Madison, Wisconsin public schools are described in relation to its effort to bring about increased awareness of the need for reexamination of both district-wide and local school evaluation procedures. The sub-committee's recommendations are…

As part of a process of restructuring a city-wide testing program in Madison, Wisconsin, members of the school staff were surveyed concerning their perception of priorities for a testing program. The survey list, presented in Table I, was developed from a pool of items contributed by representative members of the staff. As a result of the survey,…

The Wisconsin legislature has required the Department of Public Instruction to adopt or approve standardized tests for statewide use to measure student attainment of knowledge and concepts in grades 4, 8, and 10. Although school districts generally gave high ratings to the contents of TerraNova (McGraw Hill), the testing instrument most recently…

The activities of the Nucleus Testing Committee of the Madison County (Wisconsin) Schools in developing a new student testing program are discussed, and suggestions for the development of appropriate testing procedures are given. An individualized learning packet, developed by the author, using the psychological and educational modalities of…