The 2016-2017 academic year marks the second year of statewide implementation of the North Carolina K-3 Formative Assessment Process: Kindergarten Entry Assessment (FAPKEA). The assessment, developed and implemented by the Office of Early Learning (OEL) at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, is a comprehensive formative assessment…

The TOWRE-2 was developed to provide an efficient measure of two essential wordlevel reading skills, sight word reading and phonetic decoding skills. The Sight Word Efficiency (SWE) subtest assesses the number of real words that an individual can read from a vertical list within 45 s. This subtest is designed to measure the size of an individual's…

The report draws from Center on Education Policy's eight-year study of high school exit exams to identify long-term trends in state policies and student performance. It highlights a growing trend among states to establish alternate pathways to graduation for students who are struggling to pass exit exams. The report also analyzes exit exam pass…

This paper explores gifted education and plans for inservice teacher education in gifted education programs in Iowa. A survey was conducted of 238 Iowa public school districts having programs for gifted students. Initial analysis of the data involved a frequency count for each of 13 survey items which rated program emphasis on major provisions of…

This is the fourth edition of the State Student Assessment Database. This document tabulates information about each state's assessment programs based on a survey mailed to state directors of assessment in October 1995 and completed by all 50 states by February 1996. The survey was divided into the following categories: (1) general concerns; (2)…

In March 1989, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory entered into a contract with the Nevada Department of Education to develop this evaluation design for the Nevada Proficiency Examination (NPE) Program. The NPE program, mandated by state legislation, requires each school district to administer examinations in all public schools to…

Reviews three software programs produced by textbook publishers that allow teachers to create tests specifically correlated to those texts. Evaluates Norton Testmaker, Diploma IV, and Testmaster according to user-friendliness, editing capability, and variety of test formats. (MJP)

The goal of this paper, and the symposium it represents, is to provide an examination of the perspectives of district personnel from four diverse states. The papers present the current status of legislated student assessment programs in California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Illinois. Similarities and differences in implementation methodology are…

Three papers are included in this document. The first, "An Introduction to the Problem of Test User Qualifications," by Kevin L. Moreland, is a short history of the American Psychological Association (APA)/American Educational Research Association (AERA)/National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) Working Group on Test User…

In 97 Ohio school districts, 484 teachers and administrators rated their school's standardized testing practices as average or above, compared to school performance in other areas. Highest rated testing practices were related to test quality, pupil records, and understandable scores and reports; lowest rated practice was use of test results to…

Accountability and assessment are critical components to the success of schools today. As leaders of school districts, superintendents in Texas and across the nation are faced daily with meeting this challenge. While doing so, they must remember that their priority commitment is not to testing programs, but to helping children achieve.…

In 1982 the Michigan Educational Assessment Program's Test of music learning was administered by local school staffs to fourth, seventh, and tenth graders from 36 randomly selected schools in 33 districts. Group tests were administered to 5700 students, and 500 students took individual tests. Test items were developed from objectives in the…

This document tabulates extensive and detailed information about the assessment programs of each state. It is the third edition of the database and remains the single best source for information about the student assessments that states conduct. The database is compiled from a survey completed by state directors of assessment. The first section of…

The result of a two-year effort by more than 150 community college faculty and staff members in Hawaii, this report presents task force recommendations for improving programs leading to the associate degree. The recommendations concern: (1) the maintenance of two associate degrees, an associate in arts and an associate in science; (2) the…

Teachers' reactions to the administration and scoring of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program tests (MSPAP) were studied, focusing on their direct and indirect exposure to tasks and evaluative criteria through the experience of scoring the MSPAP. Since its inception in 1991, the MSPAP has been scored in-state by certified teachers…