Two different versions of "big ideas" rooted content maps have recently been published for general chemistry. As embodied in the content outline from the College Board, one of these maps is designed to guide curriculum development and testing for advanced placement (AP) chemistry. The Anchoring Concepts Content Map for general chemistry…

The National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National Association of State Boards of Education jointly devised recommendations in 11 areas in order to achieve America's education goals for every student since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. These recommendations included giving…

The history of the College Entrance Examination Board's Advanced Placement Program is chronicled from its conception in 1951 through early developmental stages and 40 years of implementation. Issues discussed include test development, funding, administration at the institutional level, expansion of curriculum areas and testing options, teacher…

Advanced placement (AP) tests in the United States are one of the best examples of home-grown high standards, but only a few students participate in them. Increasing student access to AP examinations offers a ready-made approach to high standards that can be expanded easily. (SLD)

Establishing and refining a framework for performance assessment is especially difficult in large-scale settings that can involve hundreds of judges and thousands of students. This presentation advocates the interactive use of two complementary analytic perspectives and illustrates the approach in the context of the College Entrance Examination…

In their effort to provide quality programing for their diverse student body, the Des Moines Public Schools continually evaluate their teaching and student outcomes. This report presents results about student performance on the following tests: (1) Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS); (2) Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED); (3) American…

A college faculty member who has graded Advanced Placement exam essays on U.S. government and politics, taken mostly by high school juniors and seniors, suggests that high school teachers and college faculty who assess the essays are not the best qualified persons to do so and that despite efforts to ensure consistency, the resulting scores are…

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…