"U.S. students are being educated less well these days than they should be," writes W. James Popham. One key contributing factor is that educators often use the wrong tests to make their most important educational decisions. Two recent events have made it a perfect time to change the way we conduct our educational testing: growing…

The author examines three essential questions on educational assessment: What really matters in a contemporary education? How should we assess those things that matter? How might our assessments enhance learning that matters, not just measure it? In answering these question, he argues that schools need a broader collection of measures, with a…

Professional assessment organizations almost universally endorse the use of multiple measures for making education decisions. In practice, however, the concept of multiple measures is defined and applied in many different ways, depending on how we answer two questions--What counts as a "measure"? and How are the multiple measures…

The importance of educational accountability and assessment literacy is recognized as a long-term challenge to the educational system. The complexities in becoming an assessment literate and provide an opportunity to the educators to display their effective learning is discussed.

Ralph Tyler answers questions about his work in educational evaluation during the past 50 years and identifies the major problems in education today as educating disadvantaged children, improving the transition of youth into constructive adult life, and rebuilding the total educational environment for children. (MLF)

The core of adversary evaluation is the existence of opposing viewpoints, not adherence to existing formats for presenting them. Suggests that evaluators develop adversary methods more appropriate for education. (Author/MLF)

Discusses the development of the National Assessment of Educational Progress and describes how its methods and materials are being used in Nebraska, Connecticut, Maine, and other states as a tool to improve educational programs. (Author/JG) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Results (Utilization).

Argues that there are many sources of information about schools other than standardized tests and questionnaires, and stresses the value of careful, unobtrusive observations that are well focused and intelligently interpreted. Lists numerous unobtrusive criteria for possible use in evaluating students, school programs, and school personnel. (JG)

Researchers who compared Nebraska high school curricula between 1953 and 1983 have developed a model readily adaptable to individual districts desiring a more informed basis for decision making. (Author)

Argues that overreliance on standardized tests contributes to the deterioration of educational standards, teacher passivity, and lack of student involvement in academic studies, thus undermining democratic education; lists several alternatives to standardized testing. (MCG)

A sampling of student assessment and accountability in selected countries to help put trends in the United States in perspective. Examines national student assessments in England, France, and Hong Kong. Also looks at several international collaborative assessment projects for reading literacy, mathematics, and science. (Contains 10 references.)…

The author, an experienced teacher and teacher educator, describes how she has learned to incorporate assessment purposefully into every mathematics lesson she teaches. Such an approach, she writes, tells her whether the lesson was accessible to all students while challenging the more capable, what the students learned and still need to know, how…

In this article, the author draws attention to the fact that in school evaluations, students will improve on state-mandated tests, but the improved scores will not influence a school's adequate yearly progress (AYP) status because those students' scores do not cross the proficiency point. A state's proficiency point on each of its standardized…

Recommends that schools experiment with a comprehensive formative evaluation system suggested by "A Study of Schooling" by John Goodlad and his associates. The system includes periodic assessment of such things as student achievement, teaching practices, class climates, adult working environments, and parent attitudes. (Author/JM)