The Australian field of English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching is globally respected for its research and practice achievements over a period of some 30 years. However, this essential field of pedagogy is being diluted in the current Australian reform agenda which is firmly founded on a traditional vision of English as first language, and…

Enactment of policy on diversity and learning in Australian schools is evident in "diversity talk" in daily discourses of school teachers. From policy documents to daily staffroom conversations, there is extensive use in contemporary Western educational discourse of ethnolinguistic categories. The categorization of students to groups on…

The Assessment of Language Competence (ALC) certificates is an annual, international testing program developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research to test the listening and reading comprehension skills of lower to middle year levels of secondary school. The tests are developed for three levels in French, German, Italian and…

This study describes enrollment and achievement trends of limited English proficient (LEP) students in New Jersey public schools between 2002/03 and 2008/09. It documents achievement gaps between LEP and general education students in language arts literacy and math. The study's main findings include: (1) From 2002/03 to 2008/09, LEP student…

The National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assessments are designed to assess literacy and numeracy of all Australian school children in years 3, 5, 7 and 9, and to act as diagnostics as to whether children are meeting intended educational outcomes. Tests began in May 2008, and have been run annually since then. Results of the…

This report presents a description of state policies regarding the participation of English language learners (ELLs) in statewide assessment programs during the 1998-1999 school year. The data collected included descriptions of policies: (1) for the inclusion and exemption of ELLs; (2) regarding the allowance or prohibition of accommodations in…

Test developers continue to struggle with the technical and logistical problems inherent in assessing achievement across different languages. Many testing programs offer separate language versions of a test to evaluate the achievement of examinees in different language groups. However, comparison of individuals who took different language versions…

This study was undertaken to develop guidelines for making interpretive inferences from scores on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), a norm-referenced test of English-language listening comprehension (LC) and reading (R) skills, about level of ability to use English in face-to-face conversation, indexed by performance in…

Materials concerning the 1978 national college entrance examination in the People's Republic of China are presented. This was the first nationally standardized test taken in China since the Cultural Revolution began in 1966. The examination contained tests in eight subjects: mathematics, physics, chemistry, politics, history, geography, Chinese…

This second statewide School Performance Report offers a snapshot of public education in Wisconsin during the 1992-93 school year. District-collected data make up the School Climate section, providing information on enrollment, attendance, suspensions, expulsions, retentions, dropouts, graduation and later education, and extracurricular and…