Last May, the seven most recent New York State Teacher of the Year award winners joined the 1993 recipient in sounding the alarm bell over the state's new plan to stake 40 percent of teachers' performance evaluations on students' standardized test scores. In their letter to Chancellor Merryl Tisch and the state Board of Regents, the teachers said…

Auditory perception with cochlear implants (CIs) enables the majority of deaf children with normal learning potential to develop (near) age-appropriate spoken language. As a consequence, a large proportion of children now attend mainstream education from an early stage. The acoustical environment in kindergartens and schools, however, might be…

Much of the argument about comparability of examination standards is at cross-purposes; contradictory positions are in fact often both defensible, but they are using the same words to mean different things. To clarify this, two broad conceptualisations of standards can be identified. One sees the standard in the observed phenomena of performance…

Traditional measures of teachers' competency have been widely criticized for their lack of authenticity and predictive validity. There is little evidence regarding the technical soundness of traditional teacher licensure tests and little research documenting the validity of such tests for identifying competent teachers or effective teaching.…

Robert Coe has claimed that three broad conceptions of comparability can be identified from the literature: performance, statistical and conventional. Each of these he rejected, in favour of a single, integrated conception which relies upon the notion of a "linking construct" and which he termed "construct comparability".…

Provides a brief historical review of construct validity and discusses the current state of validity theory, emphasizing the role of arguments in validation. Examines the application of an argument-based approach with regard to the distinction between performance-based and theory-based interpretations and the role of consequences in validation.…

Authentic assessment is a growing alternative to conventional testing. This research-to-practice article describes a framework for implementing authentic assessment. The R-E-A-L framework shows how roles, equipment, assessment tools, and location can be incorporated into early childhood practices.

The results of the June 2000 CLAST administration are reported in this information capsule. Results are reported for first-time examinees, retake examinees, and students earning alternatives to the CLAST requirement. During this administration period, 3,858 Miami-Dade Community College (M-DCC) (Florida) students earned an alternative in at least…

Describes educational assessment in Singapore and discusses changes planned to focus assessment on more real-life situations while taking into account research on learning and critical thinking. (SLD)

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…

Discusses President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act and addresses the flaws of the program. Addresses the program's focus on student assessments, relationship between assessment and accountability, and mandated assessments for public school. Also discusses how the program does not affect private and religious schools. (MZ)

In 1998, California state legislation called for significant reform in the preparation of teachers. As a result, institutions of higher learning must now conduct a formal performance-based assessment. All teacher candidates must participate in the assessment at the end of the program for receipt of the preliminary teaching credential. The…

Discusses ways in which the logic of mandated systems of mass testing, as a means of ensuring the accountability of public schools, results in the loss of local responsibility for student learning, as well as an inevitable orientation of local schools to comply with system directives over personal, professional, and community values. (Contains 55…

This article discusses the use of performance task assessments by Project STAR for identifying students for academically gifted programs in grades 3-6. A field test of the performance assessment tasks resulted in finding an additional group of students who were 12 percent African American and 14 percent low-income children. (Contains references.)…

This book is intended to help parents understand more about the tests their children take in school. The pros and cons of different types of tests are explained, and the proper use of standardized tests is discussed. Each chapter contains a brief summary of the topic, with follow-up activities and a list of resources a parent could bring to the…