Despite a pending policy change aimed at including more students with disabilities and English-language learners (ELLs) in the "nation's report card," the federal agency that administers the national testing program appears to be softening the penalty for states that fail to improve inclusion rates. The disagreement underscores the…

Many articles and reports have reviewed, researched, and commented on international assessments from the perspective of exploring what is relevant for the United States' education systems. Researchers make claims about whether the top-performing systems have transferable practices or policies that could be applied to the United States. However,…

Use of item response theory (IRT), the delta plot method, and Mantel-Haenszel techniques to assess differential item functioning (DIF) across racial and gender groups associated with the Maryland Test of Citizenship Skills (MTCS) is described. The objective of this research was to determine the: effect of sample size on results from these three…

The Edmonton Grade III Achievement: 1956-1977 study is a comparison of achievement in reading, arithmetic, and language involving all of the third grade students in a large school system. Six basic skills tests which were administered to all of the Edmonton third grade students in 1956 were reprinted and administered to all of the third grade…

The state of the art of language testing in England is examined through the conference proceedings presented in this text. The nine chapters, written by individual authors, include discussion of the General Certificate of Education examinations, nonschool examinations, oral tests, research by examining boards, continuous assessment, and…