This brief is organized into four (4) main sections. We first discuss the inadequacy, inefficacy, and bias of standardized, high-stakes assessments. These assessments do not deliver on promises made by proponents and that they, in fact, do long-term harm to teachers and students, with a disproportionate negative impact on communities of color. The…

The nature and effects of PBLA were investigated. I examined LINC program evaluations, government-solicited assessment reports, PBLA research, and other PBLA-related documents. I discuss the features of PBLA and its reported effects on language outcomes and teacher and student attitudes. I found that the government did not provide a rationale for…

The Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) is a vehicle for public four-year universities to report comparable information about the undergraduate student experience via the College Portrait, a common web reporting template. The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) was asked by the VSA to evaluate the effectiveness of the…

This article evaluates the full-scale integration of the ePortfolio into a healthcare professional program in an open admissions community college in the United States. The Physical Therapist Assistant program in question struggles to balance the dynamic tension between preparing students for a summative multiple-choice licensing examination and…

This project explored the possible applications of new technology to standardized testing. Because the multimedia approach is particularly promising for music, the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) music test was chosen as the context for this project. The basic system for administering the test and recording the results was written using…

The California Assessment Collaborative (CAC) was designed as a three-year effort to identify, validate, and disseminate alternatives to standardized testing throughout the state. This report highlights the results from the first year and comments on the work of 22 diverse pilot projects that serve as examples of site-based development of…

The desire for a national picture of educational quality remains a continuing but unresolved goal. A question has been raised among high level policymakers regarding the feasibility of using existing data collected by the states to construct education indicators for state-by-state comparisons of student performance at the national level. A…

This report summarizes evaluation results on the costs and benefits of administering ACT's EXPLORE assessment in AISD during its pilot year in 2000-2001.

A major provision of the South Carolina Education Improvement Act of 1984 established the requirement for a high school exit examination (HSEE) for all 10th-grade students. Passage of the HSEE is a condition for the receipt of a state high school diploma. The HSEE is an outgrowth of the South Carolina Basic Skills Assessment Program, which…

Steps involved in the item analysis and scaling of the 1990 edition of Forms A and B of the Nevada High School Proficiency Examinations (NHSPEs) are described. Pilot tests of Forms A and B of the 47-item reading and 45-item mathematics tests were each administered to random samples of more than 600 eleventh-grade students. A computer program was…

For seven years, the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) was the primary standardized assessment instrument used by the adult education program of the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV (MIUIV) of the Pennsylvania Department of Education Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education. While reviewing its current assessment procedures, the MIUIV's…