This article reveals three emerging areas of conflict in the use of educational assessment instruments in compulsory education in Switzerland and outlines an analytical approach for detecting and analysing these areas of conflict. The approach combines a conceptual perspective, an evaluation perspective and a teaching perspective to show the…

The study surveyed the 50 states and the District of Columbia to identify current state policies that regulate graduation requirements and to determine how these policies have been applied to programs for high school special education students. Survey results produced four major findings: (1) all but three states have legislation or state board of…

Quality control policies towards Dutch vocational schools have changed dramatically because the government questioned examination quality. Schools must now demonstrate assessment quality to a new Examination Quality Center. Since teachers often design assessments, they must be involved in quality issues. This study therefore explores teachers'…

This study analyzed the written accommodation guidelines for students with disabilities in 18 states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia) that use graduation examinations. Each state uses a…

Recent criticism of public education has led to demands for educational improvement. Responses to this criticism include the development of minimum competency tests (MCTs) and calls for increased academic requirements. This paper reviews a national survey of state graduation requirements that reveals a wide variance in requirements. Eighteen…

This report describes the design of an implementation evaluation of the Massachusetts Basic Skills Improvement Policy, to be conducted during 1982-83. The Policy and Regulations were enacted in 1978-79 when school districts were required to develop basic skills improvement plans. In 1980-81 districts were required to implement their plans.…

Surveys parents, students, teachers, and administrators in one Ohio school district about Senate Bill 55, which prohibits promoting to fifth grade any fourth grade student who fails the fourth grade proficiency test. Argues that legislators determined what is best for students without educators' input, and that the public still has a lot to learn…

This paper summarizes the results of a study of the local consequences of implementing statewide minimum competency tests. For American education to be the best in the world, the use of statewide and nationwide standardized testing as a primary policy tool for stimulating reform must be discontinued. Second, school district responses to such…

Most other nations have a very different approach to measuring academic achievement at the end of high school and signaling that information to universities and other interested parties. In Australia, Denmark, England, Scotland, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and many Canadian and German provinces, for example, high school exit…

Addressing often neglected broad issues, rather than the pragmatics of test development and administration, this Conference on Minimum Competency Achievement Testing was organized around six topics: (1) social and philosophical roots, uniqueness among testing movements, and policy issues; (2) legal, curricular, and social-demographic consequences;…

Procedures for establishing the cutoff scores for the occupational competency exams administered to individuals graduating from Pennsylvania vocational teacher education programs were reviewed. A total of 595 National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) Exams administered in 43 occupations or trades at three colleges between the…