The primary sample for Year 11 of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was selected in March 1979, and was preceded by an 18-month planning effort. During the planning period, research concentrated in five specific areas: sampling frame construction, stratification criteria, efficiency study review, techniques and computer…

This is the first of three volumes designed to cover the problems and issues of developing and managing a formal assessment program. They also offer guidelines and illustrations of several aspects of assessment programs, such as administering tests or documenting their results. This volume deals with the regulations governing school assessment…

The purposes of the North Dakota Statewide Assessment of Student Performance in Mathematics are: (1) to meet the public's right to know about the current status of student knowledge throughout the state; (2) to provide information and recommendations for corrective action concerning areas of student performance needing improvement; and (3) to…

The Michigan accountability system, based on statewide objectives-referenced testing at two grade levels generated considerable controversy, including this response to criticisms of an evaluation of the program by a panel of three persons. The contract under which the evaluation was performed is quoted to show that the authors of the report were…

The Nebraska Assessment Battery of Essential Learning Skills (N-ABELS) is a goal-oriented instrument with an evaluation component providing a basis for determining acquisition of twelve skills defined as learning goals. Each goal is stated in terms of an acceptable performance standard which clearly describes what the student must do. The skills…

The pros and cons of using behavioral objectives, the merits of norm-referenced versus objective-referenced tests, and the virtues of sampling versus census testing are familiar topics in evaluation literature. Far less common is practical information on how to implement objective-referenced testing, particularly the large-scale testing required…

Three papers in this book place the current movement of accountability and State assessment in perspective and point to the emergence of a different set of "arrangements" for education than those normally accepted by Americans and a different way of framing goals for education. In the first paper, Miriam Clasby draws attention to the intended and…

This book has been written for state board of education members and other citizens interested in public education. It is, in a sense, a primer in matters relating to learning, testing, assessment, and evaluation. Presented are some philosophical and political considerations in statewide educational evaluation. Learning is defined and the types and…

In 1972, the board of regents of the university system of Georgia directed that a testing program be established to provide information on the status of student competence in the areas of reading and writing. In addition, the program was to provide a uniform means of identifying those students who fail to attain minimum levels of competence…

A variety of methods are used to assess secondary school seniors in Australia to determine college admission: locally-developed achievement tests in curricular subjects; external achievement tests; and general aptitude tests, such as the Australian Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Testing problems include aggregating and rescaling of scores. (GDC)

A study was conducted in England in 1997 to consider materials that were available to support students making a transition from compulsory education to the study of mathematics in noncompulsory post-16 education. This report on the study also contains an outline of the basic structures of the English education system and its assessment provisions.…

In 1998, the Stanford Achievement Test Series, Ninth Edition, Form TA (Stanford 9) was administered to Virginia students in grades 4, 6, and 9 as the norm-referenced component of the Virginia State Assessment Program. As in the previous year, from 93 to 96% of Virginia's students took the Stanford 9, although the first administration was taken by…

The author discusses the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP), with emphasis on mathematics. Topics discussed include: tests and reports, uses of results, effects on curriculum, local control, and the future of Michigan's mathematics assessment. (MK)

The article presents a general discussion of assessment and examples of items that assess specific skills. Included are: estimating and approximating; observing and measuring; using data to infer and predict; and graph construction and interpretation. Specific tests are listed. (MK)

Proposed an accountably model that addresses the challenges of allowing school districts to choose the specific strategies they use to measure student performance and evaluated this model using data from multiple sources for all school districts in Florida. Findings identify three strategies that would be useful for this type of accountability…