Educational assessment and, more broadly, educational research in the United States have entered into an era characterized by a dramatic increase in the prevalence and importance of test score use in accountability systems. This volume covers a selection of contemporary issues about testing science and practice that impact the nation's public…

The theory, presented by Ginsberg (TM 508 964), that quantitative indicators are likely to be corrupted when used for purposes of accountability is supported by the results of the Learning Disabilities Identification Study. The quantitative indicator in this case had to do with selection of pupils eligible for services for the handicapped. (BW)

The Texas Education Code requires the Commissioner of Education to develop and propose a system for evaluating the progress of students eligible for exemption from the statewide assessment program under current law. This report summarizes the proposed system for limited English proficient (LEP) students. It includes proposed changes to the…

Reviews the origin, practice, and effects of the "payment by results" law in late nineteenth-century England, in which elementary education was funded on the basis of students' examination results. Argues that such a system of educational accountability severely hampered development of English and Welsh elementary education. (PAA)

This ERIC Digest was adapted from the Association for Childhood Education International's (ACEI) 1991 position paper on standardized testing. Since the publication of "A Nation at Risk" in 1983, standardized testing programs have expanded greatly. Tests may be of pencil-and-paper or performance-oriented varieties. The purposes of tests…

The Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) utilize the state mandated testing of students in grades 3, 5 and 8 with the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) as an accountability index. The district has set objectives to be met by teachers and students. The Department of Instructional Research, Testing, and Evaluation (IRTE) District Program…

Aspirations for the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988 and more recent accountability efforts for the central office indicate that the Chicago Public School (CPS) system needs a credible system for charting academic improvement. The annual systemwide reports of student test scores are crude and sometimes seriously biased indicators for making…

Explores issues of whose work is actually being evaluated when raters outside the classroom context make judgments about students based on work composed with the support of peers, teachers, and parents. Data from an evaluation of a statewide assessment and a study of scoring elementary school writing portfolios illustrate the issues. (SLD)