Approximately one-third of American freshmen at two-year and four-year colleges require remedial coursework and over 40 percent of employers rate new hires with a high school diploma as "deficient" in their overall preparation for entry-level jobs. Yet, over the past decade, as these students marched through America's public education…

This technical report provides an overview of the New York State Alternate Assessment (NYSAA), including a description of the purpose of the NYSAA, the processes utilized to develop and implement the NYSAA program, and Stakeholder involvement in those processes. By comparing the intent of the NYSAA with its process and design, the validity of the…

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…

Mandatory numeracy tests have become commonplace in many countries, heralding a new era in school assessment. New forms of accountability and an increased emphasis on national and international standards (and benchmarks) have the potential to reshape mathematics curricula. It is noteworthy that the mathematics items used in these tests are rich in…

The following is adapted from chapter 2 of "Assessing Expressive Learning: A Practical Guide for Teacher-Directed Authentic Assessment in K-12 Visual Art Education" by Charles Dorn, Stanley Madeja, and Robert Sabol. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ 2003. (Appendices referred to in the following article can be found in the book…

This technical report provides an overview of the New York State Alternate Assessment (NYSAA), including a description of the purpose of the NYSAA, the processes utilized to develop and implement the NYSAA program, and Stakeholder involvement in those processes. The purpose of this report is to document the technical aspects of the 2013-14 NYSAA.…

The Toronto Board of Education Benchmarks are libraries of reference materials that demonstrate student achievement at various levels. Each library contains video benchmarks, print benchmarks, a staff handbook, and summary and introductory documents. This book is about the development and the history of the benchmark program. It has taken over 3…

The Tennessee value-added assessment system (TVAAS) is described. TVAAS is a statistical process measuring the influence which school systems, schools, and teachers have on indicators of student learning. Initially, TVAAS will furnish information at the system level for grades three through eight in math, science, reading, language, and social…

This is the 17th year of statewide student testing under the Arizona Student Achievement Program. To fulfill the requirements of Arizona law, a nationally standardized, norm-referenced achievement test in the subjects of reading, language, and mathematics must be adopted and implemented for Arizona schools. For the 1996-97 school year, the State…

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…

The accountability testing programs of many states have begun to make extensive use of constructed-response questions and to report test results in terms of percentages of students at various proficiency or performance levels. This paper describes the step-by-step procedures for two standard-setting methods recently used for the New Hampshire…

The primary purpose of the South Carolina Statewide Testing Program is to assess the achievement of fourth, seventh, and tenth grade public school students. Test results provide educators with information which facilitates the decision-making process. For the second time, Form U of the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills was the instrument used to…

The New Hampshire State Department of Education in conjunction with the state board and the Legislature, has implemented a new statewide educational improvement and assessment program. The purpose of the program is "to establish what New Hampshire students should know and be able to do and to develop and implement effective methods for…

This report, second in a series, contains school and district level data on student performance at the end of the primary grades. It provides a source of information to evaluate current school improvement efforts and facilitate decisions about curriculum, instruction, professional development, resource allocation, and staffing. The statewide…

The language arts assessment developed for use in grade 8 of the Cherry Creek Schools in Englewood (Colorado) is described. In 1988-89, the assessment in use was modified substantially to reflect a holistic approach through an assessment based entirely on a written product. Students are provided with multiple sessions in which to draft,…