This paper developed a Democratic Classroom Survey to measure students' perceived democratic environment of the classroom. Perceived democratic environment is one of the most important variables for understanding classroom activity and indeed any type of group activity, but actually measuring perceptions in an objective manner has been…

This handbook is designed as a quick reference for first-year teachers who find themselves in an assessment driven environment with little experience to help make sense of the language, underlying philosophy, or organizational structure of the assessment system. The handbook begins with advice on developing and evaluating effective learning…

Students helping students have become an increasingly important educational concept over the last 20 years. While the popularity and prevalence of these types of programs have grown considerably, there has been little effort to evaluate their effectiveness. The authors advocate for counselors to use a scientist practitioner approach to…

Tests producing results that are used to make important decisions about students, schools, and curricula should not be developed locally by teachers. Although district educators at all levels need to become familiar with measurement nuances, the development of high stakes tests is best left to measurement professionals. Includes four references.…

Test development procedures and six methods for determining cut-off scores are briefly described. An alternate method, appropriate when the test developer also determines the cut-off score, is suggested. Unlike other methods, the standard is set during the test development stage. Its computations are intelligible to nonstatistically-oriented…

Three kinds of instructionally sensitive achievement tests are described which provide useful information on formal schooling proficiencies: placement, progress, and attainment tests. Procedures to design, develop, and empirically verify attainment and placement tests are presented. The methodology is designed to ensure that the test instruments…

Where human beings are concerned and complex behavior is involved, prediction of future performance is no simple matter. Scientifically developed, systematically standardized and carefully validated tests have emerged as the most reliable tools in predictive efficacy. If opponents of standardized testing win, society will lose. (Author/CM)

The steady growth of state testing programs and its implications for the measurement community are discussed in terms of testing purposes (monitoring, accountability, and curriculum advancement) and test development, administration, and reporting. It is important that the measurement community address crucial issues to maintain its substantial…

Considers four major decisions to illustrate the complexity of decision making about pretesting as part of the instructional process: whether a pretest should be administered; the behaviors that should be pretested; how pretesting should be accomplished; and how teaching strategies should be adjusted to pretest results. (MBR)

Using the analogy of temperature measurement, the Rasch model is presented with arguments for its adoption as the basic scaling technique for achievement measures. Three extensions of the Rasch model for more complex testing are developed. Test development for the British national assessment program and the promise of item banking are also…

Describes the development of an English-as-a-Second-Language computer-adaptive test of reading comprehension. The article discusses the constraints that apply to Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) and the advantages of CAT over conventional testing modalities. (29 references) (Author/CK)

Described are important changes that will be introduced in the mathematics sections of the new Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The three main changes are (1) permission to use calculators; (2) inclusion of open-ended questions; and (3) content revisions consistent with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics "Curriculum and Evaluation…

Presented is a summary of the actions taken by American College Testing in response to calls for reform in standardized testing. The areas of reform discussed are test development, test content, skills levels, test criteria, and new testing initiatives, such as alternative-response-format questions and calculator use. (MDH)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) collected data on the mathematics performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-year old Americans in 1973, 1978, and 1982. An additional assessment in grades 3, 7, and 11 is planned for 1986. Educational objectives to be used in the 1986 assessment were contributed, reviewed, and revised by a committee of…

This paper details the development of the high school general mathematics examination and reading comprehension tests for grades one through eight for the curriculum referenced testing program in Charleston County School District, South Carolina. While the basic developmental approach was similar, problems encountered in developing the two types…