Florida's Statewide Assessment Program of the State Department of Education has been involved in a major effort to develop adequate strategies for releasing and publishing assessment scores for schools. One dimension of this effort has been the development of predicted or "adjusted" scores. These scores compare a school to other similar…

As part of Utah's 1978 statewide assessment, a number of tests were administered to over 4,000 fifth grade students from 64 elementary schools and over 2,000 eleventh graders from thirty high schools. This report presents the results in each of the areas tested: (1) intellectual maturity--measured by reading and mathematics achievement on the…

Since the California Assessment Program began in 1972 to provide information for evaluation of school programs in California, major changes in testing practices have occurred. Scholastic aptitude testing has been eliminated in all grades; state-designed reading and basic skills tests are administered in grades one, two, three, six, and twelve.…

As part of a cross-national research project on literature instruction in middle-grade classrooms in Great Britain and the United States this study explored the effects of external assessment on that instruction. The focus was on the literature selected, the class time allotted, and provisions made for students' choices. The study explored the…

The Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP), implemented in 1989, requires student assessment in reading, writing, and math prior to regular college course work. Students undergo continuous remediation until they are able to pass the assessment test. Though TASP advocates argue that the program helps maintain academic standards and provides students…

This paper presents the latest in a series of studies examining school district report cards for their usefulness planning and implementing school improvement. The 1992-93 Arkansas report cards were studied. These were similar to the report cards from Tennessee that were the subject of the initial study in that they used and reported a…

This report contains details of the results of the Primary Assessment Program conducted in 1991 in urban and non-urban schools in the Northern Territory of Australia. The assessment program, conducted annually at years 5 and 7 in urban schools and at ages 10 years and above in non-urban schools, monitors achievement in English and mathematics. In…

Focusing on one of the critical questions in the shift to new forms of assessment, researchers, policymakers, and teachers met at the 1993 Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) to consider equity in assessment. The opening remarks of CRESST co-director Robert Linn stressed that equity is at the center of…

The National Academy of Education Panel is providing the intellectual leadership and coordination for an independent evaluation of the 1990 and 1992 Trial State Assessments (TSA) of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). These instruments provide state-by-state comparisons of educational achievement, which is the first such use of…

The Delaware Educational Assessment Program publishes annual results from the California Test of Basic Skills by district, school, and grade (1 through 8 and 11). A statewide computer information system was developed to manage the testing program, the massive 10-year longitudinal database, and the information requests received. The Delaware…

The Monitoring Commisssion was created in 1976 by the U.S. District Court to: (1) audit the efforts of the Detroit, Michigan public school system as it implemented a court-ordered desegregation program, (2) inform the community; and (3) advise the court. This Commission Report on the assessment process and its findings has six major sections as…

During the 1974-75 school year, all second and third grade pupils in California were tested in reading achievement, and all pupils in grades 6 and 12 were tested in the basic skills of reading, written expression, and mathematics. The Reading Test: Second and Third Grades was the instrument used to assess reading achievement; it was developed…

The results of the achievement testing program of the Alberta (Canada) public schools are reported for the June 1991 administrations. The 1991 results help demonstrate what is possible for students in grades 3, 6, and 9 to know and do in science, mathematics, and social studies. For the first time, results are reported in terms of curriculum…

This collection explores the theory and applications of educational testing. It is divided into sections on theory and general principles of educational measurement, administration of tests and scoring, and applications of testing. The following chapters present information on test theory and use: (1) "Current Perspectives and Future…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) evaluated the writing ability of American students in 1974, 1979, and 1984. Data from 95,000 students were examined for trends over this 10-year period. Writing tasks, including informative, persuasive, and literary or imaginative writing were administered to national samples of students aged…