Tests and assessments are generally administered to gather data to aid in decision making, with at an individual student level or at an aggregated level. In order to incorporate assessment data in informed decision making, test users need to understand the test results. This chapter highlights the types of test scores and test score…

Sound testing practices and the high-quality information that can result are helpful to those who have oversight, responsibility, or interest in American education. To the extent that tests provide high-quality information, they form the basis for making accurate judgments about individual students. It is equally true, however, that factors which…

Three groups of persons are involved in the testing enterprise: test producers, test users, and test takers. A wide literature is available to guide the first two groups, but only recently have measurement professionals considered the interests of test takers in any careful way. The content of this chapter is presented as a set of 26…

This handbook will assist principals and school testing coordinators in implementing the spring 2007 administration of the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). Information regarding administration timeline, reporting, process, online tools and contact personnel is discussed. Contents include: (1) Scheduling; (2) Identify Primary Test…

In today's educational setting, assessment results weigh heavily in determining what students should know and be able to do. In addition, because assessment scores are often tied to accountability systems that affect both teaching and learning, they influence what is taught in the classroom. The changes in the use of assessments underscore the…

Guidelines for test developers and users are provided to insure that construction and selection of test instruments are conducted fairly. In addition to development and selection, issues of interpretation of scores; provision of information to test takers; and prevention of test bias based on race, gender, or ethnicity are addressed. Twenty-one…

In the United States, standardized educational tests have been used for assessment purposes in grades K through 12 almost since the inception of the testing movement in the early 1900s. Because test-based assessment can have wide-ranging positive or negative effects on K-12 students, the test user must ensure that the tests used for assessment…

This book describes how examinations and national assessments can be used to encourage more pedgaogically sound teaching and learning. It provides concrete examples of ways to measure student learning and describes how to develop, score, and interpret tests to ensure that they are valid, reliable, and fair to all children. It offers techniques and…

Developed for the Basic Skills Testing Program (BSTP) in New South Wales, Australia, this teacher's manual describes the Blue Series 3 of the ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) Tests of Basic Skills. The two tests in the series, Aspects of Literacy and Aspects of Numeracy, were administered statewide by government school classroom…

Developed for the Basic Skills Testing Program (BSTP) in New South Wales, Australia, this teacher's manual describes the ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) Tests of Basic Skills. The two tests in this series, Aspects of Literacy and Aspects of Numeracy, were administered statewide by government school classroom teachers in August,…

Developed for the Basic Skills Testing Program (BSTP) in New South Wales, Australia, this teacher's manual describes the Green Series 3 of the ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) Tests of Basic Skills. The two tests in this series, Aspects of Literacy and Aspects of Numeracy, were administered statewide by government school…

Developed for the Basic Skills Testing Program (BSTP) in New South Wales, Australia, this teacher's manual describes the Green Series 6 of the ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) Tests of Basic Skills. The two tests in this series, Aspects of Literacy and Aspects of Numeracy, were administered statewide by government school…

This handbook is designed to serve as a resource for Alaskan district-level administrators in charge of planning, implementing and monitoring districtwide student assessment programs. The information is divided into 10 chapters, including: (1) aligning assessment with curriculum and instruction; (2) planning an assessment program; (3)…

Describes a method for making standardized test results more useful for teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents by providing information on the test content actually mastered by the student and on the student's individual development over time, as well as providing traditional numerical and norm-referenced scores. (PGD)

This Handbook is intended to help educators understand testing, interpret test results, and defend the selection, construction, and use of tests. The Handbook, tailored to the needs of educators, analyzes only tests used by educators. The Handbook contains more than 100 reviews of tests used routinely to make education decisions and assess skills…