The tests we use to evaluate student achievement may well be sound measures of what students know, but they are faulty indicators at best of how well they have been taught. A remedy to this this situation of judging teachers by the performance of their students on high-stakes tests may be in hand already. We should look to the methods successfully…

This paper is part of a series investigating the implementation of competency education. The purpose of the paper is to explore how districts and schools can redesign grading systems to best help students to excel in academics and to gain the skills that are needed to be successful in college, the community, and the workplace. In order to make the…

The practice of handing out excellent grades to students who don't deserve them (grade inflation) is not a new phenomenon. Indeed grade inflation is among the oldest and most difficult issues to address in higher education. The author first studied the impact of grade inflation on student performance on standardized tests at the high school level…

The 1969 Invitational Conference on Testing Problems had as its theme "Toward a Theory of Achievement Measurement." Papers presented in Session I, The Nature of Educational Achievement, were: (1) "Concepts of Achievement and Proficiency" by William E. Coffman; (2) "The Functions and Uses of Educational Measurement" by Winton H. Manning; (3)…

The widely used Woodcock Johnson (WJ) Test of Achievement has been separated into two distinct tests, Achievement and Cognitive Abilities. This book is designed to help busy mental health professionals acquire the knowledge and skills they need to use the third revision of the WJ Tests of Achievement (WJ III ACH) , including administration,…

This chapter briefly describes some of the methods that test developers and psychometricians have devised to identify item and test bias and some of the challenges they still face. Although it may not be reasonable for classroom teachers to use these methods on a day-to-day basis in constructing tests, the authors argue that it is important for…

The advantages and disadvantages of grade equivalent (GE) scores are explored, including appropriate uses for GE type scores and how to bring current GE scales closer to the type of information educators appear to desire. Although GE scores are not an equal interval scale, not comparable across school subjects, and do not indicate the grade level…

Year after year, students, teachers, administrators, politicians, and parents are faced with the dilemma of reading assessment. Sheila Valencia (1990) feels that reading assessment has become a hot topic because the outcome tends to differ from school to school. Evaluations should be authentic and trustworthy. Roger Farr (1992) has noted that the…

This book provides a comprehensive evaluation of the goals, objectives, and procedures of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Separate chapters discuss NAEP's objectives and organizational development; its division of knowledge into subject areas; the subject-area objectives; exercise development; measurement of background…

Issues related to the establishment of formal standards for student achievement on large-scale assessments are discussed, and two approaches to standard setting that have been used in Saskatchewan (Canada) are described. In spite of the general success of these programs, numerous issues to consider in future evaluations are raised. (SLD)

This paper describexs the difficulties encountered in developing a teacher merit pay system based on pretest-posttest class gain scores. The different stages of development are scrutinized, from the initial stage of achievement test selection through the specification of a criterion score for superior teacher productivity. The pretest-posttest…

Using a sci-fi matchmaking scenario to illustrate the fallibility of technology, this article discusses the practice of reducing a student to a series of test scores for gifted identification. The limits of testing are addressed, and student performance and behavior are urged as additional categories for identifying aptitude and achievement.…

This symposium deals with recent issues in the development of the National Assessment model. General goals are outlined and the following topics are discussed: "Objectives and Exercises" (Jack C. Merwin); "Sampling" (A. Finkner); and "Data Analysis" (John Milholland). (CK) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt…

This study of 12 children (ages 7-13) with mild to moderate bilateral sensorineural hearing loss found that psychoeducational diagnostic tests standardized on students with normal hearing may be used with confidence to assess both cognitive and academic levels of functioning in students with sensorineural hearing loss. (Author/JDD)

High-stakes assessments are those in which the results of tests or other measures can lead to decisions that may affect school administrators, teachers, and students substantially. Whether high-stakes assessment results in misleading information due to extraneous factors associated with the conditions under which the assessment occurs is explored.…