Testing students and using test information to hold schools and, in some cases, teachers accountable for student achievement has arguably been the primary national strategy for school improvement over the past decade and a half. Tests are also intended to be used as a diagnostic tool to identify individual student needs, so that students can be…

This report identifies the states with current or pending state-level end-of-course assessment (EOC) programs, the subjects in which EOCs are administered in the states, and the EOCs (if any) students must pass to graduate from high school. Twenty-two states currently administer one or more EOCs to all students in an EOC course. This number will…

This report provides information about the performance of Washington's 2016 graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2016. Beginning with the Graduating Class of 2013, all students whose scores are college reportable, both standard and…

This general achievement trends profile includes information that the Center on Education Policy (CEP) and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) obtained from states from fall 2008 through April 2009. Included herein are: (1) Bullet points summarizing key findings about achievement trends in that state at three performance…

The Council of Chief State School Officers has raised some issues pertinent to the implementation of a national project to collect statistical indicators of academic achievement and to compare them across states. The United States Department of Education shares this concern, with an emphasis on sampling schools for a school level analysis which…

This report provides information about the performance of Washington's 2012 graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2012 and tested under standard time conditions. This report focuses on: (1) Performance: student test performance in the…

This guide in English and Spanish is designed to answer questions parents may have about the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), including how it will help improve their children's education, how it is scored, and how to use the information it provides. In Washington, clear educational goals for subject content, thinking skills, and…

This study was designed to contribute to the validity evidence for the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) by providing additional descriptive data about the performance standards in reading and mathematics at grades 4, 7, and 10. After the realignment of norm-referenced tests, large numbers of students taking the WASL had…

Test results (1968-1977) on the English and mathematics achievement subtests of the Washington Precollege Test (WPC), administered annually to the vast majority of college bound students in the state of Washington, were examined for evidence of test score decline. The following information from 300,000 students was analyzed by both sex and total…

This year the Center on Education Policy analyzed data on the achievement of different groups of students in two distinct ways. First, it looked at grade 4 test results to determine whether the performance of various groups improved at three achievement levels--basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced. Second, it looked at gaps between…

In this progress report are descriptions of (1) the 1970 program of Project Catch-Up (PCU), Western Washington State College's (WWSC) 6-week summer residence program of remediation and cultural enrichment for junior high age youth of ethnic minority status or poverty background having high potential and low achievement, and (2) the follow-up…

After discussing the view that ethnic and socioeconomic status are, undesirably, predictive of academic success (e.g., only 3 or 4% of the Indians in Northwest Washington were high school graduates at the time of writing), this document sketches the rationale and methods of Western Washington State College's (WWSC) Project Catch-Up (PCU).…

Achieve was asked by the Washington State Academic Achievement and Accountability Commission, Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction, and the Partnership for Learning to conduct a study of the 10th grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). The intent of the study was to compare the content, rigor and passing scores on…

This report provides a summary for the years 1993 through 1997 of district and school-level results in Washington on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, fourth edition (CTBS/4) for grades 4 and 8 and the Curriculum Frameworks Assessment System (CFAS) for grade 11. For grades 4 and 8, the average national percentile scores in reading,…