Forty-one states have adopted the Common Core State Standards. Now, implementing the Standards--to realize their purpose of increasing the college and career readiness of high school graduates--takes on primary importance. This transition to implementation introduces a number of challenging questions: What is the baseline of student performance on…

This report presents results of the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in writing at grades 8 and 12. In this new national writing assessment sample, 24,100 eighth-graders and 28,100 twelfth-graders engaged with writing tasks and composed their responses on computer. The assessment tasks reflected writing situations common to…

This study investigated the practice of weighting a type of test item, such as constructed response, more than other types of items, such as selected response, to compute student scores for a mixed-item type of test. The study used data from statewide writing field tests in grades 3, 5, and 8 and considered two contexts, that in which a single…

The ACT National Curriculum Survey is a one-of-a-kind nationwide survey of educational practices and expectations conducted by ACT every 3 to 5 years. ACT surveys thousands of middle school/junior high school, secondary, and postsecondary teachers in English/writing, reading (including English language arts and social studies teachers),…

This report compares students' scores on the 2000 Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) writing assessment with the writing scores of their counterparts in 1998 and 1999. In addition, the results of a writing study are discussed briefly. Delaware students in grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 took the 2000 DSTP writing assessment, responding to a text-based…

The Writing Assessment, part of the North Carolina End-of-Grade testing program, is required by the State for students in grades 4 and 7. The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) also tested students in grades 5 and 8 who did not receive a score of 2.5 or higher the previous year, but results for those students are not included in this report.…

To help teachers, administrators, and parents understand student performance in writing, a state-level report is prepared each year to analyze students writing scores and provide guidelines for the interpretation of the results. This report compares students scores on the 2001 Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) with scores on the 2000 DSTP…

This investigation of the comparability of writing assessment prompts was conducted in two phases. In an exploratory Phase I, 47 writing prompts administered in the computer-based Test of English as a Foreign Language[TM] (TOEFL[R] CBT) from July through December 1998 were examined. Logistic regression procedures were used to estimate prompt…

This document contains the results of a standard setting conducted between August 2 and August 12, 1999, on the Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) Mathematics, Reading, and Writing subtests at grades 3, 5, 8, and 10. At the standard setting, judges were asked to recommend only the cut point between "Below the Standard" and…

At Golden College (California), student writing samples are holistically scored by pairs of judges on a six-point scale. Judges are allowed to use plus and minus figures, thus converting the integer scale to a decimal scale of evaluation. In 1991, 499 writing samples written as part of the placement testing process for students in the Coast…

This PowerPoint report summarizes AISD student demographic and academic performance results at elementary schools as of the end of the 2007-2008 school year.

The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) is a state-mandated, criterion-referenced or mastery test that has been administered since the 1990-91 school year. The TAAS measures student mastery of the statewide curriculum in reading and mathematics at grades 3 through 8 and at the exit level, and in writing at grades 4 and 8 and at the exit…

New Mexico has established a system of student achievement assessment that consists of four coordinated testing programs. District and state results are given for these assessments. The Reading Assessment, consisting of a norm-referenced test and a criterion-referenced test, is used in grades 1 and 2 to assess student mastery of essential…

The Des Moines Public School System (Iowa) continually evaluates the process of teaching for learning. As part of this ongoing process, this report provides information to the Board of Directors and the public about the achievement of district students on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED), the…

This report presents Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) student performance results for the 1989-90 school year. Data are aggregated and reported for the state as a whole, for various student and district demographic groupings, for school districts, and for individual campuses. Section I provides an executive summary of…