Education officials have long hoped that the statewide academic assessments most students take each year could be used not only for accountability but also to guide instruction. Congress established the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) program in 2015 to help address this goal, offering up to seven states flexibility from…

State testing programs regularly release previously administered test items to the public. We provide an open-source recipe for state, district, and school assessment coordinators to combine these items flexibly to produce scores linked to established state score scales. These would enable estimation of student score distributions and achievement…

State testing programs regularly release previously administered test items to the public. We provide an open-source recipe for state, district, and school assessment coordinators to combine these items flexibly to produce scores linked to established state score scales. These would enable estimation of student score distributions and achievement…

Most students with disabilities participate in state assessments with or without accommodations [based on each student's Individualized Education Program (IEP)]. A small number of students with the most severe or profound intellectual disabilities participate in an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). Until…

In an effort to continuously advance the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) program, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) convened a series of meetings focusing on the future of NAEP. Participants engaged in productive discussions and debates, exchanging forward-thinking ideas about what role NAEP should play five,…

In this article we address the issue of consistency in standard setting in the context of an augmented state testing program. Information gained from the external NRT scores is used to help make an informed decision on the determination of cut scores on the state test. The consistency of cut scores on the CRT across grades is maintained by forcing…

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…

This paper addresses issues of vertical equating for the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment and Accountability Program (ACTAAP) assessments as they relate to school accountability and determination of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as required by the recent federal legislation, the No Child Left Behind Act. The paper first provides a brief…

This report shares with educators and the public all of the test items on which spring 2002 student results from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) are based. The release of these items provides information on the kinds of knowledge and skills students are expected to demonstrate on the MCAS tests. Local educators are…

Describes the procedures by which Kentucky's state assessment program synthesized results from three standard setting procedures (Contrasting Groups, Bookmark, and Jaeger-Mills) for the 2000 state assessment. Shows the value of using multiple standard-setting approaches to gather information from each. (SLD)

Describes the concept of "adequate yearly progress" as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act and discusses some of the psychometric issues it raises. Examines scaling as a means to equate tests when assessing educational gains and recommends vertically moderated standards over vertical equating of state assessments. (SLD)

This overview of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests is designed to help schools implement the Massachusetts"Curriculum Frameworks." For this fourth administration of the MCAS tests in 2001, the design of the tests remains essentially the same, but there are some changes highlighted in this overview. The first…

Compares the results of the first and second years of testing in the Florida minimum competency program to show that the program is working. (IRT)

Presents a procedure for standard setting that involves the cluster analysis of test takers to discover examinee groups that are useful for envisioning marginally competent performance or defining borderline or contrasting groups. Illustrates use of the procedure with a statewide mathematics test, and concludes that cluster analysis is useful in…

Provides an overview of the recently developed state accountability system for public elementary and secondary schools in Rhode Island. Discusses accountability systems as technologies of social control and considers the costs, benefits, uncertainties, and necessary tensions associated with accountability systems. (Author/SLD)