South Carolina's approach to teacher certification testing is presented. The teacher certification program is a combination of National Teacher Examination (NTE) requirements and Act 187 requirements. NTE's have been administered in South Carolina to certify teachers since 1945 and are administered in 45 teaching areas. In August 1979, Act 187 was…

This bulletin has three purposes: (1) to discuss the variety of factors which should be considered in the development of a local testing program, providing a basic understanding of what is necessary to implement and maintain a testing program; (2) to suggest several of the significant elements related to the development and maintenance of a…

The Maryland Functional Testing Program (MFTP) uses the Rasch model as the statistical framework for the analysis of test items and scores. This paper is designed to assist the reader in developing an understanding of the fit statistics in the Rasch model. Background materials on application of the Rasch model in statistical analysis of the MFTP…

The Registered Holistic Scoring Method, which has been used for one year to score the ninth grade writing test of the New Jersey High School Proficiency Test, is described. Registered Holistic Scoring was developed from the previous holistic approach in order to provide more reliable scoring guidelines year after year. Two trained evaluators…

This paper summarizes the Alabama Career Incentive Program, a statewide effort to evaluate more than 30,000 teachers including specialists in guidance, speech therapy, and so on. The evaluation was based on 10 classroom competencies and five outside-the-class professional competencies. A low-inference instrument measured competencies by using…

The North Carolina End-of-Course Testing Program was established to provide student, school, and school system information about achievement in high school courses. Approximately 83.4 percent of the 77,154 students who took the biology test were in the tenth grade. Students taking biology in the ninth grade (8.3 percent) were on an accelerated…

Since fall 1982, on the recommendation of a collegewide task force on student assessment, a mandatory assessment and voluntary placement program has been operating at Victor Valley College (VVC). Assessment testing takes place 3 weeks before registration and also on a continuous basis throughout the semester. The 2-hour testing period is followed…

This conference report provides a summary of the activities and outcomes of the second Student Success Strategies Conference, which sought to further facilitate the development of community college action plans in the areas of access, assessment, and intervention in ensuring student success. Following introductory information on the conference, an…

This paper presents an explanation of the program design of the three separate Pascal-language programs which comprise UCLA's Diagnostic Testing Package "DX." The three parts of the DX test package are three closely interrelated programs--Editest, Runtest, and Summary. Editest serves the following functions: (1) the creation of a…

In 1981, the Faculty Senate, at an upper division midwestern university, initiated the consideration of a literate skills testing program to address variance in academic level of the entering undergraduate student. The policy stipulated that all undergraduate students admitted to a degree program must demonstrate competency in writing and…

Since 1979, New York State has been working on an instrument to evaluate elementary school students' writing ability. Several thousand writing samples were obtained and were analyzed, by a test development committee consisting of elementary school teachers, qualitatively within each grade as high, average, and low, and in terms of organization and…

Drawing on findings of two Center for the Study of Community College (CSCC) projects, this paper reviews some of the services offered by community colleges to facilitate transfer to four-year institutions. Introductory material provides background on the low rates of student transfer and on the CSCC projects, which involve 6 large urban community…

In Louisiana, the state rated fiftieth in literacy, racism has been legitimized under an educational credo. The Louisiana legislature has established requirements for teacher certification that are insidious and far-reaching, among them laws that affect an undergraduate education major's curriculum, academic standing, student teaching experience,…

Offers a synthesis of the arguments for and against value-added testing (i.e., assessing how much students learn or improve or grow in school or college). Looks at alternative methods of measuring the value added in terms of the relationship between entry and exit skills. (DMM)

Reports on a project undertaken at St. Louis Community College (MO), during which a sample of technical high school students were tested to establish their knowledge/competency levels in selected data processing subjects in an effort to develop testing procedures and criterion levels for advanced placement. (AYC)