This book meets a demand in the science education community for a comprehensive and introductory measurement book in science education. It describes measurement instruments reported in refereed science education research journals, and introduces the Rasch modeling approach to developing measurement instruments in common science assessment domains,…

This handbook describes the responsibilities of district and school assessment coordinators in the administration of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA). This updated guidebook contains the following sections: (1) General Assessment Guidelines for All Assessments; (2) Writing Specific Guidelines; (3) Reading and Mathematics…

Parents, students, teachers, school leaders, governments and the general public need good information on how well their education systems prepare students for life. A growing commitment by governments to monitor the outcomes of education systems in terms of student achievement on a regular basis and within an internationally agreed framework led…

In this report, Joan Herman, director for the National Center for Research, on Evaluation, Standards, & Student Testing (CRESST) recommends that the new generation of science standards be based on lessons learned from current practice and on recent examples of standards-development methodology. In support of this, recent, promising efforts to…

The marking, or grading, system used in Israel is discussed in terms of its history and current use. A standardized assessment instrument used as a practical biology matriculation test, the Practical Tests Assessment Inventory, is described. (LMO)

Discusses the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) physics examination. Areas addressed include CSE personnel, setting and moderating papers, marking and standardization, grading, curriculum development, and the examination profession. (JN)

The Swedish school system comprises: (1) Pre-primary school (Forskola), typical age 1-5; (2) Preschool class in the compulsory school (Grundskola) typical age 6 (participation voluntary); (3) Compulsory school, typical age 7-16, grades 1-9, and (4) Upper secondary school, 17 programmes (4 mainly academic, 13 vocational), typical age 16-19, grades…

The Polish school education system makes a distinction between two types of assessment: (1) Intra-school or internal assessment; and (2) External assessment. The idea of introducing external examinations into the Polish school education system emerged in 1992. This was directly inspired by study visits to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands…

Reports that 26 of 199 responding colleges require the Fundamentals of Engineering examination. States that of the 26, 16 require it to be taken college-wide and 3 require the student to pass. It was estimated that fewer than half of all graduating engineering students take the exam. (MVL)

This report, submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, contains summary details of Delaware students' growth in the areas of reading, mathematics, writing, science and social studies. The results reported herein are part of a long-term effort to gather data on Delaware students' educational progress and use the data to inform decisions about…