Kansas law requires setting passing scores for the reading and mathematics competency test for 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 11th grade students, administered annually since April of 1980. New objective-referenced tests are prepared each year. Both judgmental (Angoff, Ebel, and Nedelsky) methods and empirical (contrasting groups and borderline) methods…

The activities and results of the first year of a two-year student assessment pilot program are described, based on a 1978 mandate by the Kansas Legislature requiring the development of minimum competency objectives in the areas of reading and mathematics for students in grades 2, 4, 6, 8, and 11 and instruments for assessing those competencies.…

The faculties of the postsecondary institutions in Florida, using the authority of the State Board of Education, have implemented a testing program that increases the assurance that all students who complete their sophomore year in college have achieved the communication and computation skills expected of them. (Author/MLW)

Notes some of the conflicts between the use of hands-on science curricula and standardized testing. Discusses the state of testing and the state of science education with regard to the tests. Describes some promising developments in assessment in science education. (TW)

The new Florida Master Teacher Program in which the state provides bonuses directly to qualified teachers is described. Three measurement issues in implementing the program are discussed: (1) evaluating a teacher's classroom performance; (2) evaluating a teacher's subject area knowledge; and (3) combining scores to determine which teachers…

Describes the Colorado Writing Assessment Program, a testing program that provides two kinds of feedback to teachers and students: (1) a holistic score that measures the general quality of writing and (2) a set of scores on analytic scales that reflect students' achievement in four areas. Concludes that the program works. (FL)

High stakes testing is associated with controversy and dialogue in this era of calls for accountability on the part of educators, and the controversy has been strengthened by the national testing plans included in the Leave No Child Behind Act (Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001). A look at the literature on high stakes testing and…

One Midwestern state has chosen a model of state assessment in which local school districts are responsible for developing the strategies to measure and report their students' performance on state-adopted content standards. When students are not measured on common instruments, district accountability becomes an added challenge. This paper presents…

This report presents an analysis in text and tables of performance on the 1995 and 1996 General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations by students who attended special educational schools in England. The main conclusions were: (1) nearly 70 percent of English special schools who have students at Year 11 (15 to 16 years old) had no…

In 1998, the Kentucky General Assembly called for a new testing system known as the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) to determine how much children are learning in school. This brochure tells the basics about Kentucky's system of public education. The "Core Content" document describes what students should know and be…

The Texas Education Code requires the Commissioner of Education to develop and propose a system for evaluating the progress of students eligible for exemption from the statewide assessment program under current law. This report summarizes the proposed system for limited English proficient (LEP) students. It includes proposed changes to the…

The Texas Education Code requires the Commissioner of Education to develop and propose a system for evaluating the progress of students eligible for exemption from the statewide assessment program under current law. This report summarizes the proposed system for special education students. It includes proposed changes to the assessment and…

Beginning in the 1992-93 school year, the North Carolina State Board of Education authorized administration of North Carolina-developed end-of-grade tests aligned with the state's "Standard Course of Study." These state-normed tests were administered to more than 568,000 students in grades 3 through 8 in 1998-99. End-of-course tests were…

This report presents the results of the statewide spring 2000 administration of the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP). Third-grade students were assessed in Reading; fourth- and seventh-grade students were assessed in Reading and Writing; and eighth-grade students were assessed in Mathematics and Science. The assessments were developed by…

A decade ago intelligence testing was in its beginnings in the United States. There were no standardized tests available except those of the Binet-Simon scale. These tests had been used but little, and chiefly for the detection and classification of the backward and the feeble-minded. Goddard had just begun pioneer work in this field, while…