Through the Common Core State Standards and the development of new assessments aligned to the standards, the public education system is undergoing a transformation--and administrators can help make this vision a reality. Today, more than 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards. The standards, however,…

Assessment is central to any educational process. Number Right (NR) scoring method is a conventional scoring method for multiple choice items, where students need to pick one option as the correct answer. One point is awarded for the correct response and zero for any other responses. However, it has been heavily criticized for guessing and failure…

This paper presents a list of frequently asked questions about the 5th Edition GED (General Educational Development) Test. This paper answers the following questions: (1) With the announcement of altered plans for a 5th Edition GED Test release, will the current 2002 test series continue beyond January 1, 2012?; (2) What should I tell the public,…

Students with disabilities and special needs have faced challenges in accessing educational content, and in taking traditional pen-and-paper tests. How might technology improve the process, while making statewide tests truly accessible to all students? NimbleTools is the first computer-based test delivery system that incorporates principles of…

This article presents the outcomes of the Mobile Technologies Pilot Project for the Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). ALPS is a partnership of five Higher Education Institutions (HEI) that aims to develop and improve assessment, and thereby learning, in practice settings for…

Reports on a statewide pilot project which compared testing using paper-and-pencil and Internet-delivered test items. Participants were students from 14 Pennsylvania vocational-technical institutions. Describes the structured use, what teachers should know and insight from the project. Demonstrates that the Internet offers a viable cost-effective…

Curriculum-based measurement is a system for monitoring students' progress and formatively evaluating instruction backed by 25 years of validation research. Most of this research has been conducted in elementary schools. In middle and high school classrooms, where there is an emphasis on mastering content knowledge, elementary-level measurements…

Describes a study to pilot-test a new reading assessment instrument designed to function in a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) environment. Indicates that the measure showed fair internal consistency and correlated well with other tests. Discusses advantages and disadvantages of CAT systems and describes the HyperCAT testing program. (23…

A description is provided of the experiences of three community colleges in implementing computerized adaptive testing to assess the entry-level skills of students. Chapter 1 provides background information on the project, which utilized The College Board's Computerized Placement Tests (CPT's), a battery of untimed, individualized tests of reading…

At the Orange County Public School District in Orlando, Florida, assessing reading skills among the youngest students used to be quite a process. Relying on rudimentary products such as paper and pencils, the strategy hinged on the bubble sheets teachers administered to students once a year. After teachers scored the exams, they sent them to the…

Project Computer-Assisted Instructional Management (C-AIM) is being pilot tested on third grade mathematics students in the Jonesboro Public schools (Jonesboro, Arkansas). Each elementary building operates a MUPET Lab equipped with at least six Commodore Model 4016/4032 microcomputers, one Commodore Model 4040 dual disc drive, and one Commodore…

Describes a pilot study of computerized adaptive testing in the Michigan Educational Assessment Program's tenth-grade mathematics problem-solving and applications subtests. Comparisons are made to pencil-and-paper tests, and student reactions as determined by a posttest survey are discussed. (LRW)

In 1996, the Department of Computer Science at Monash University (Australia) implemented a First Year Advanced Students' Project Scheme aimed at extending and stimulating its best first year students. The goal of the scheme was to give students the opportunity to work on a project that best suited their needs and captured their interests. One of…

The development of the Mathematics Assessment Questionnaire (MAQ), a survey of thoughts and feelings, for students in grades 7 through 9 is described. The adaptation of the MAQ to an on-line, computer-based administration is also described. This adaptation included the development of a teacher program disk to facilitate teacher access to student…