States are increasingly focusing the mission of their elementary and secondary education systems on preparing all students for success in postsecondary education and 21st century careers. As standards have increased, so too have graduation requirements. Today, 20 states and the District of Columbia have adopted such high school graduation…

Conflicting policy decisions, scaling difficulties, teacher resistance, and mediocre results are slowing adoption of authentic student-evaluation measures. With more conservative state leadership, California and Arizona rejected performance assessment, and other states have followed. Despite various setbacks, new assessments are becoming the norm.…

In 1991 Arizona embarked on a program to change schools and make them more accountable for educational achievement. The instrument of reform was an assessment program known as the Arizona Student Assessment Program (ASAP), the most notable feature of which was a performance assessment that was added to an already extensive battery of…

The 1992-93 school year marked the first year of implementation of the statewide mandate of the Arizona Student Assessment Program (ASAP), which revised previous legislation. Iowa Test of Basic Skills testing requirements were restricted to grades 2 and 7, and districts were allowed greater flexibility in their own testing, which had previously…

This resource guide was designed for teachers and administrators in Arizona school districts to assist them in preparing functional and meaningful programs of student achievement testing. The format of the guide is based on fundamental questions often posed by educators regarding norm-referenced and criterion-referenced testing. Particular…

This report briefly describes the tests, subtests, test scores, and reports that fulfill the requirements of Arizona state legislation regarding educational accountability. It summarizes the fall 1994 Arizona statewide results by grade and across grades. Discussions of student achievement strengths and weaknesses by grade level and demographic…

In the mission statement that introduces this annual report, the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction defines the goals of revamping the state's "Essential Skills" program to reflect high academic standards and achievement, develop a fiscally responsible equitable school finance system, and reorganize the state department of…

In 2004 the Arizona Education Policy Initiative (AEPI), a collaboration of Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona, conducted its first-annual survey of parents in a systematic effort to capture parent opinion and establish a framework for tracking parent views over time. Assessing parent opinion is…

The Arizona Education Policy Initiative (AEPI), a collaboration of Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona, conducted a statewide telephone survey to get parents' perspectives on the condition of education in the state. From March 17 to March 27, 2004, a statewide random sample of 400 Arizona parents…