This paper considers three areas related to the testing of minimum knowledge and skills: public policy, the nature of higher-order thinking and selected aspects of educational measurement. The discussion of public policy issues centers around an apparent dichotomy of egalitarianism and elitism in public education, schooling and the public economy,…

Ribault (Florida) Senior High School has reported a dramatic increase in student achievement levels since implementing a comprehensive college preparation curriculum. Among the program changes that contributed to those gains are: (1) the establishment and consistent enforcement of a strong discipline program, including rules for student conduct, a…

Establishment of the new Law and Education Center (LEC) at the Education Commission of the States is announced in this document. It notes that the LEC offers preventive legal assistance to state educational programs and that it will focus on a limited number of specific legal issues. The central topic of this initial newsletter is competency…

The procedures currently used in the 12 European Community (EC) member countries for certifying the employment qualifications of graduates of full-time vocational education and training programs and/or apprenticeship programs were compared. The comparison, which was based on information obtained from 12 national studies of EC members' education…

To help school officials avoid litigation, this newsletter examines two separate issues: student competency testing and educational choice. The authors propose objective certification--in which student achievement is described solely by objective, defensible scores--as a way to avoid the possible injury to students inherent in competency testing.…

This journal issue addresses itself to the humanism versus back to basics controversy in education by focusing on its relationship to reading skills. The eight articles explore the following issues: (1) the importance of reading skills as a foundation for any type of curriculum; (2) the necessity of some balance between teaching basic skills and…

Truth in testing, competency testing, and intelligence tests constitute the central topics of this newsletter. The authors review a report prepared by the Education Commission of the States on truth-in-testing legislation and litigation, covering recent efforts at the state and federal levels to open the testing process to public scrutiny. They…

In the State of Florida, the percentage of tenth grade students passing the Statewide Student Assessment Test-Part II (SSAT-II) Mathematics has declined one or two percentage points each year since 1985. Early, accurate identification and placement of these students for remedial instruction should help reverse this Florida trend. Accurate…

Issues in the debate over national education standards for content and performance are examined in this journal issue. Interviews with three individuals in different areas of education were held, and each is described in narrative style by Anne Turnbaugh Lockwood. The first is with Linda Darling-Hammond, director of the National Center for…

Based on work done for the 1978 Ford Fellows in Educational Journalism Program, the document contains series of newspaper articles authored by 10 journalists on various educational topics. The 10 series titles and authors are: "Growing Up Gifted in America's Schools" (H. Collins); "Minimum Competency Testing: State Approaches" (J. Covington);…

The 17 articles in this journal issue focus on a response to the basics movement. Specific topics covered in the articles include the following: a definition of literacy, the meaning of the basics, the back-to-the-basics movement from a historical-linguistic perspective, behavior modification and the teaching of English composition, developing…

The five articles in this journal issue are intended for use by school administrators, and provide information on how to organize effective programs for achieving student writing competency. The first article discusses the development of New York State's Preliminary and Regents Competency Tests in Writing, analyzes sample student responses to one…

The Regents Competency Testing Program has been designed to assure that all students develop adequate skills in reading comprehension, writing, and mathematics before graduation from high school in New York. This bulletin provides information on two of the program's three basic elements that contribute to the accomplishment of this goal. First,…

The American Association of Teachers of French has proposed professional standards of competence for French teachers based on three principles: (1) teacher development is a continuum beginning in graduate study and extending throughout the professional career; (2) accreditation and evaluation of teacher education programs should take into account…

There is currently a conflict between educational accountability and the distrust of standardized testing. Concern for the quality of education is based on evidence of students' academic dificiencies, the decline in test scores, and increasing education costs and school taxes. As a result of criticism, states have mandated, or are considering,…