Independent schools are, for the most part, exempt from mandatory participation in standardized tests designed for state and federal comparisons, nor are they required to take part in comparative international assessments. The anxiety in the broader culture, however, is driving a growing interest among independent school parents (and prospective…

Standardized testing for higher education has been much in the news in the US over the last few years. In the wake of the Spellings Commission, the clear intent of the Department of Education's (USDOE) position in negotiated rulemaking in 2007 was to mandate its use in accreditation. Standardized testing is also a central feature of the Voluntary…

Examinees who take high-stakes assessments are usually given an opportunity to repeat the test if they are unsuccessful on their initial attempt. To prevent examinees from obtaining unfair score increases by memorizing the content of specific test items, testing agencies usually assign a different test form to repeat examinees. The use of multiple…

The current preoccupation in the United States with test-based accountability is founded on a set of faulty assumptions--about education practices elsewhere in the world, about international test score comparisons, and about the extent to which test scores are valid indicators of the quality of education or the state of the economy. For example,…

The Assessment Tools for Adult Education project was designed to provide training and support to staff of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) funded programs to help them use assessment tools and procedures to document the learning gains of the adult students they serve. The following candidate assessment…