This briefing note considers the place for statutory testing in primary schools during 2020-21, in the light of the COVID crisis. The English system of primary statutory assessment, culminating in SATs tests in Year 6, was suspended during the 2020 lockdown. Yet many questions remain about how primary assessment should resume, given that COVID-19…

In the United States, students have historically taken large-scale assessments for many different purposes. One purpose that is shared with many other countries is a desire to monitor aggregate trends in educational attainment in core subject domains such as literacy, mathematics, and science. In this commentary, the author examines testing,…

The purpose of this article is to understand the decision-making processes by assessment personnel when choosing instruments to evaluate students with learning disabilities. Eight school personnel responsible for the evaluation of students in Texas participated in face-to-face, semistructured interviews. The instruments chosen were based on a…

Studied the attitudes of senior school board officials in Canada to the School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP), a national assessment of achievement of 13- and 16-year-olds. Responses of 147 board officials show general support for the SAIP, although most respondents believe it has little positive impact on classroom assessment. (SLD)

Tests--typically cognitive achievement tests--are instruments for providing a more sensitive analysis of the learning sequence and of the instruction guiding it. In addition to an overall score, standardized tests provide a variety of subscores that help the teachers identify where a student might be encountering the greatest difficulties. The…

An extensive review of literature related to the role of standardized tests in the assessment of young children was conducted, and recommendations were made for alternative approaches more appropriate to the assessment of young children. The first section of the paper contains a literature review that provides a brief history of standardized tests…

Shifting from aptitude to achievement tests for college admissions is discussed with implications toward the positive educational effects of rewarding diligence and serious study in high school. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is compared with other achievement tests reqarding effects on schools and equal opportunity. (CM)

The need for accuracy in testing, the unintended social consequences, and the contrast of achievement and aptitude tests are discussed in response to the views of Jencks and Crouse (see TM 506 983) regarding whether to change the function of the SAT. (CM)

This essay reflects on the use of state-mandated achievement tests to evaluate what children have learned, drawing on the experiences of an elementary school teacher and the Connecticut Mastery Test. In this time of increased interest in testing, it is necessary to guard against rigidity of thought regarding intelligence, teaching and learning,…

Six anomalies in achievement test scores encountered by the Austin Independent School District are described. These include crossing gaps with uninterpolated medians; total group median declines while all subgroups' medians rise; outlying total percentiles; percentile and grade equivalent growth antithesis; same grade equivalent earning a…

Discusses three common misconceptions about achievement testing: (1) the idea that men generally outscore women; (2) the notion that the primary role of norms is to compare one student to another; and (3) the misconception that it is not possible to measure the achievement of kindergarten and primary grade students with group tests. (SLD)

This report focuses on the standards and test schools used to measure student and school performance in Texas. The primary method for evaluating the academic achievement of Texas public school students is a standardized test called the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). A review of TAAS scores and their uses suggests that the TAAS test…

This theme issue reviews the advantages and disadvantages of testing. Both activists and researchers seem to agree that tests measure a limited range of skills and that test preparation alone does not improve teaching or learning. There is also substantial agreement among researchers and activists opposed to widespread test use that no single…

Three kinds of instructionally sensitive achievement tests are described which provide useful information on formal schooling proficiencies: placement, progress, and attainment tests. Procedures to design, develop, and empirically verify attainment and placement tests are presented. The methodology is designed to ensure that the test instruments…

The Texas Education Code required the commissioner of education to conduct a study to determine the need to expand the assessment system to include the assessment in grades 7 and 8 of limited English proficient (LEP) students whose primary language is Spanish and other students of limited English proficiency. This report presents the research…