Trends in performance assessments across the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Illinois were explored through the development, administration, and analysis of an interstate survey. These four states were selected to represent the diversity of state-mandated testing programs relative to emphasis placed on performance assessment.…

In 1986 the Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation directing the Legislative Research Commission to appoint a special subcommittee, the Special Subcommittee on Essential Skills Testing, to study the Kentucky Essential Skills Testing Program (KEST) and to make recommendations concerning the program. This report presents the findings and…

Political and legislative pressures have posed a number of measurement issues and challenges to the development of sound, valid voluntary national tests (VNTs). This paper focuses on what appear to be the most difficult technical issues related to the VNT proposed by President Clinton in 1997. Technical issues refer to psychometric issues, as…

This publication provides a reference for educators and others interested in conducting comparative studies relative to North Carolina tests. It includes norms, tables, and other statistical information for all state-developed tests (state-mandated and local-option tests for which baseline data are available) that were administered during the…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has conducted state assessments in 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1996. At present, after the fourth round of state assessments, it is clear that the program is generally successful. A survey of state testing directors indicates that the NAEP has considerable credibility as a valid and reliable source…

The Cherry Creek School district (Englewood, Colorado) is a growing district of 37,000 students in the Denver area. The 1988 Colorado State School Finance Act required district-set proficiencies (standards), and forced agreement on a set of values for student knowledge and skills. State-adopted standards added additional requirements for the…

Clear communication with parents about educational reform issues and the implementation of standards is essential. This publication presents ideas for state leaders on how better to inform parents about statewide assessments and how to report the results of these assessments to parents so that the results are more meaningful. The first section…

The School-Based Management and Accountability Program, also known as the "ABCs of Public Education," or just "the ABCs," is the statewide school-based accountability program for public schools in North Carolina. This document reports the results of the 1997-98 ABCs, in the second year of the implementation of the ABCs in…

At the beginning of the 1981-82 school year, the Board of Education of the Portland (OR) Public Schools established a system-wide achievement goal of improved learning in all areas of the curriculum including the basic skills. This report describes the gains made during the first year of implementation of that new achievement policy. Portland's…

The U.S. Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) administered basic skills achievement tests to cadets enrolled in Military Science I (MSI) and Military Science IV (MSIV): Missouri College English Test, Nelson-Denny Reading Test, and Stanford Achievement Test: High School Mathematics. The samples adequately represented geographic regions and…

The use of item banks and item response theory has resulted in new ways to misinterpret and misuse tests through customized, yet standardized, achievement test batteries. The new test batteries create the possibility of serious misunderstandings based on the idea that any subset of items from the pool with a proper range of difficulties will…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was initiated in the mid-1960's to collect student achievement information over time and describe the data in ways meaningful to the nation's educational and civic leaders. This work presents the Florida perspective on how NAEP can be improved to aid educational decision-makers in the…

This report provides Albuquerque Public School Administrative personnel with 1982-83 test result summaries for gifted students in grades 1 through 12 on the Scott Foresman Achievement Series tests and the Developing Cognitive Abilities (D-CAT) test. These results are the first complete set of pre- and posttest data obtained on gifted students over…

One hundred twenty college freshmen in the lowest 20% of their classes participated in a study of the relationships between scores on the Nelson-Denny Reading Test and the Cooperative English Test and varying levels of standing on ACT English and Social Studies and SAT Verbal Tests, by race and gender, controlling for high school grade-point…

The "D" testing program, the fourth in a year-long series of test administrations, is summarized. As part of the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study, reading and mathematics achievement was studied in second and fifth grade classes. The samples for the "D" testing were 97 second grade students out of l50 in the "A" testing, and 89 fifth grade…