Although most states use a single strategy for statewide assessment, one Midwestern state has chosen a model in which local school districts are responsible for developing strategies to measure and report students' progress on state-adopted content strategies. This paper describes the state assessment system and focuses on the perspectives of…

This paper addresses itself to the history and use of standardized aptitude and achievement tests for practical judgements about schools in New Jersey. In the author's opinion, school-wide aptitude testing is not a particularly useful practice when other types of information, particularly grades, achievement tests, and teacher's comments, are…

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…

As part of a major effort to raise student achievement, Colorado schools have been putting into place rigorous academic content standards that spell out the skills and knowledge students should acquire in core subject areas. This guide contains information about part of this effort, the new Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP), to help…

The new Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) was developed to provide a measurement of how well students and schools are meeting Colorado's academic content standards. The CSAP tests are not norm-referenced showing how much a student has learned in comparison with other students. Instead, they are based on the state's content standards.…

One Midwestern state has chosen a model of state assessment in which local school districts are responsible for developing the strategies to measure and report their students' performance on state-adopted content standards. When students are not measured on common instruments, district accountability becomes an added challenge. This paper presents…

This booklet provides parents, teachers, administrators, and policymakers with information about achievement testing which is relevant to their needs. The first section presents an overview of the current market for standardized achievement tests and provides key definitions, distinctions between ability and achievement testing, comparisons of…

In 1984 an evaluation team examined the Maryland Functional Testing Program (MFTP), a statewide competency-based, criterion-referenced testing program that was instituted to limit awarding of high school diplomas to those students who had earned scores above cut scores on a series of achievement tests. This article examines the procedures the…

The psychometric properties of the testing tools of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP), the state standardized testing program, are examined. Reliability studies have indicated that the scores from the MEAP, ranging from 0.654 to 0.949, are generally acceptable. The State Department of Education offered supporting evidence for the…

Tests can be categorized into two major groups: norm-referenced tests (NRTs) and criterion-referenced tests (CRTs). NRTs are designed to highlight achievement differences between and among students to produce a dependable rank order of students across a continuum of achievement from high achievers to low achievers. With NRTs, a representative…

Norm-referenced tests (NRT) help compare the performance of one student with the performances of a large group of students, while criterion-referenced tests (CRT) focus on "what test takers can do and what they know, not how they compare to others" (Anastasi, 1988). Both types of test can be standardized so that scores can be interpreted the same…

The objectives and assessment characteristics of the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Tests for grade 1 are given to show teachers the range of content and type of questions. In mathematics, objectives are defined in areas of: (1) concept identification, recognition of the names and relationships between numbers; (2) component operations, use of…

The objectives and assessment characteristics of the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Tests of reading and mathematics for grade 2 are given to familiarize teachers and curriculum directors. In mathematics, objectives are defined for: (1) concept identification, testing understanding of the basic vocabulary and relationships of numbers; (2) component…

The objectives and assessment characteristics of the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Tests for grade 3 are defined for reading and mathematics. Mathematics objectives are given for: (1) concept identification, the recognition of names, relations, and properties of numbers and units; (2) component operations, using numbers and unit of measurement; and…

The reading and mathematics objectives of the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Tests for Grade 4 are described. In reading, objectives are defined for: (1) literal comprehension, the understanding of information explicitly stated in the materials; (2) inferential comprehension, the understanding of information not literally expressed; and (3) problem…