The study compares the effectiveness of Focus on Form (FonF) and Focus on FormS (FonFs) approaches in learning new L2 words by 158 high-school learners of English as L2. In phase 1 of the study, the FonF group read a text containing the target words, discussed it in small groups, and answered comprehension questions. The FonFs group studied the…

Papers from the 1997 and 1998 Current Trends in English Language Testing (CTELT) conferences include: "Computer-Based Language Testing: The Call of the Internet" (G. Fulcher); "Uses of the PET (Preliminary English Test) at Sultan Qaboos University" (R. Taylor); "Issues in Foreign and Second Language Academic Listening…

This document provides information on average student performance at the state level on end-of-grade (grades 3 through 8 in reading and mathematics and grades 4 through 8 in social studies) multiple-choice tests and all end-of-course (high school courses) tests administered in 1994-95 as part of the North Carolina Testing Program. State-level…

Performance based assessment refers to tasks that require students to construct responses or take actions to demonstrate specific knowledge or skills. Performance assessment tasks appear in a variety of formats, but they focus on higher order skills and are nonroutine, and sometimes loosely structured, in nature. A number of concerns have been…

Essays for the Graduate Management Admissions Test must be written with a word processor (except in some foreign countries). The test sponsors, the Graduate Management Admissions Council, believed that this is fair because some word processing skill is a prerequisite for advanced management education. Furthermore, it might also be unfair to…

For assessments that present problems that require extended responses and substantial amounts of time, there is often a desire to allow students to choose which problem they will respond to among two or more options. Student choice of problem may allow students a better opportunity to demonstrate what they know and are able to do. On the other…

Statewide assessment programs in mathematics that have led the way in the development and implementation of new alternative forms of assessment are described and compared. Assessments reviewed are: (1) the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP); (2) the Maine Educational Assessment (MEA); (3) Vermont's Mathematics Portfolio Assessment…

This study was directed toward determining the effect on National Teacher Education (NTE) Test Scores of changing a professional undergraduate educational program, and exploring whether there is a specific significant difference between the use of a traditional undergraduate professional educational program and a modified undergraduate…

This document is a report to the Delaware State Legislature concerning the results of the Delaware Educational Assessment Program in 1989-90. The Stanford Achievement Test was administered statewide in grades 1 through 8 and grade 11. This administration allowed both national and state comparisons. The average Delaware student performed above the…

The impact of a decision by a local program under Chapter 1, the federally funded program of financial assistance to special educational needs of children, to test students fall-to-fall or spring-to-spring was studied. Students enrolled in a Chapter 1 reading program in 1988-89 were tested on a fall-to-spring basis, a spring-to-spring basis, and a…

The study evaluated the comparability of two versions of a teacher certification test: a paper-and-pencil test (PPT) and computer-based test (CBT). Standardized mean difference (SMD) and differential item functioning (DIF) analyses were used as measures of comparability at the test and item levels, respectively. Results indicated that effect sizes…

The East Tennessee State University College of Education has begun removing objective testing from regularly scheduled class time and has begun using Macintosh computers for content tutoring and the evaluation of students at their convenience. The new testing program requires students to meet criteria for the number of correct responses within…

Characteristics that distinguish criterion-referenced tests from their norm-referenced counterparts are discussed, including: the purposes that they are designed to serve; the characteristics of the types of items that they contain; and the manner in which they are developed. More specifically, the distinguishing characteristics include: reference…

A study examined whether Canadian twelfth grade students' papers would rate differently when they were written in different modes and whether there are significant differences between global (modified holistic) scores and rhetorical effectiveness (modified primary trait) scores for the same papers. Fifty students wrote on two transactional topics…

Using 33 college freshmen enrolled in a basic reading skills course as subjects, a study was conducted for two purposes: (1) to determine the effects of direct exposure to the topics of the selections in the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test (NJCBSPT) on their posttest scores, and (2) to investigate whether students exposed to the…