Tests are used for making decisions about students, including decisions about promotion, in-grade retention, and high school graduation. This article provides criteria for evaluating the technical quality of tests used for high-stakes decisions in education. The intent is to provide educators with information for evaluating their testing program.…

Notes that the methods used to set standards for National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests suggest recommendations for state-level policymakers. Explains the national assessment, basic assumptions in setting performance standards on NAEP, selection of judges, standard-setting methodology for NAEP, and measurement issues in setting…

Examined the attitudes of 360 students in grades 6 through 9 toward standardized achievement tests. Results showed scores on the Stanford Achievement Test were significantly related to students' perceptions of individual effort, test importance, and the use schools make of test results. (JAC)

Examines proposals to establish national test/testing system as administrative, policy mechanism to foster good teaching and learning, monitor student progress, help in college admission and employment decisions, and monitor progress toward national goals. Notes that history of testing as administrative mechanism suggests that linking of important…

Introduces special journal issue on policy-driven assessment in elementary and secondary schools by highlighting themes in the 13 articles in the issue and by posing questions related to new policies and testing practices that are being implemented in the schools. Also presents conjectures about state and national testing programs. (NB)

Surveyed counselors (n=672) about extent to which they incorporate basic principles of good testing practices in work and whether practices are learned in preservice education, in service training, or from reading ethical standards/guidelines. Found that many counselors engaged in good test use practices, adhering to many important test-use…

Examines some of the policy implications for the proposed assessment systems to replace multiple-choice tests in education as part of educational reform movement. Notes that, like multiple-choice formats, the origins and assumptions of performance assessment methods have implications for the usefulness of the data that result. (Author/NB)