Explains how to set up a testing program to measure student achievement of basic skills. (IRT)

The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, Form U, is scored in two ways: number-correct and pattern. The latter makes use of the information about which particular items are answered correctly, giving more weight to the more discriminating items and making allowances for guessing. Critics have suggested that black students are penalized by pattern…

Describes problems with standardized testing and urges teachers to educate the public about weaknesses in statewide minimum competency testing. (DD)

The Austin Independent School District (AISD) office of Research and Evaluation presents Basic Skills Achievement, 1981-82 (BSA). The BSA answers the following questions: (1) How does AISD student achievement compare to student achievement nationwide? (2) How does AISD's 1981-82 student achievement compare to the achievement of students in past…

This paper reports on the promises and pitfalls of the recently legislated basic skills testing requirement for teaching or service credential applicants in California. The California Basic Education Skills Test (CBEST), developed by Educational Testing Service from specifications set by Advisory Board to the State Department of Education, tests…

The performance of pupils, individual schools, and the Wichita Public School System is depicted in a quantitative report of the results of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) administered as part of the system's basic testing program. The ITBS battery measured vocabulary, reading, language, work-study and mathematics skills and results are given…

A study was designed to assess the effects of the introduction of a state-mandated minimum competency test (MCT) on students' acquisition of basic and high-level mathematics skills. Subjects of the study were ninth-grade students, all of whom attended the same schools in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District, and took the same form of the…

This report discusses student achievement in the San Antonio Independent School District (Texas) as seen through the results of the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS) and the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT). Taken without benefit of statewide performance the TABS scores indicate significant and troublesome declines in basic skills. The…

Under the California Assembly Bill 665 of 1972, the state assessment program must test all students in grades 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 in reading skills, and those in grades 6 and 12 to assess their skills in effectiveness of written expression, spelling, and mathematics. The state may develop its own tests, and a matrix sampling approach may be used…

The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS/S) was the nationally standardized, norm-referenced test selected for the Idaho Statewide Testing Program for 1976-77. It provided basic skills measures in reading, language, mathematics, total battery, reference skills, science and social studies. Students in the 4th, 8th and 11th grades from 51 of…

Designed for parents of kindergarten and elementary school children in Austin, Texas, this brochure explains the structure and function of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. A question and answer format is used to provide information on the scope and purposes of the tests, grade level differences in testing, meaning and accuracy of the scores, and…

The highlights of South Carolina's Statewide Testing Program, Fall, 1975 are summarized. Chapter one provides an overview of the report including the program's historical origins and changes that have occurred over the past five years as well as a delineation of the program's major objectives. Chapter two is concerned with ways in which the…

Under the California Assembly Bill 665 of 1972, the state assessment program must test all students in grades 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 in reading skills, and those in grades 6 and 12 to assess their skills in effectiveness of written expression, spelling, and mathematics. The state may develop its own tests, and a matrix sampling approach may be used…

This paper outlines how the Austin Independent School District (Texas) tried to deal with the following questions: (1) Should special education students be included in the administration of standardized tests?; (2) Should their scores be included or excluded in the reporting of test results?; and (3) What are the evidences that test scores reflect…

This paper reports on regression based methods for identifying exemplary schools. A distinction is made between schools which are maintaining an exceptional level of achievement and those which are improving their achievement in an extraordinary way. More schools were found which consistently exceeded expectations and fewer schools were found…