Reports on a study of the mathematical needs of engineering apprentices in the United Kingdom. Finds that mathematical skills learned in general education programs do not meet requirements of the engineering profession. Recommends changes in mathematics education. (CFR)

Describes a case study to determine whether performance tests are a feasible alternative to multiple-choice tests. Examines the difficulties of administering and scoring performance assessments. Explains that the study employed three performance tests and one multiple-choice test. Concludes that performance test administration and scoring was no…

Examines the uniformity of the nationally defined syllabuses and examinations in the French educational system. Describes the dynamism of the system within the secondary sector. Discusses the various schools types within the system. Addresses problems with the testing system such as overcomprehensiveness, waste of resources, and heavy preparatory…

Reviews alternative assessment practices in several nations and questions whether these techniques should be used in the United States. Focuses on moderation, a technique in which trained evaluators adjust grades to ensure equitable distribution among participating schools. Concludes that evaluation in art education presents special problems and…

Provides information on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). States that the overview of 1997 NAEP Arts Assessment results is disappointing within music education. Discusses the National Council for Education Statistics summary data tables. Presents three issues related to interpreting the tables and issues involved in secondary…

An eight-year cross-sectional study analyzed the self-esteem and both mathematics and reading attainments of eight cohorts of Year 2 and Year 6 children from five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority. Presents the results. Addresses the possible link between national testing and self-esteem. (CMK)

Presents a review of current ERIC documents concerning student assessment practices at community colleges and related issues. Discusses external pressures and challenges for assessment, frameworks and techniques in use, and the importance of recognizing student diversity and maintaining institutional support for assessment efforts. (44 citations)…

Some of the six themes about high stakes testing, based on English, Welsh, and American research, include: not all stakes are perceived as equally high; pressure to respond to tests comes from more than formal stakes; external pressure is useful for changing content taught; and external pressure is less effective in changing instructional strategy…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) provided that by the end of the 2005-06 school year, all teachers in core content areas, teaching in public schools, must be "highly qualified" in each subject they teach. Under the law, "highly qualified" means that a teacher is fully licensed through a traditional or alternative route and…

For all the fractious debate in America over the state of public schools, those on the political Left and Right agree that the "achievement gaps" are real. But what do most people mean when they say "achievement gaps"? Gaps in standardized test scores, of course. The gaps consist of the differences between the test scores of…

Defining equity within the context of a diverse, multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural society, and one where social class strongly influences one's life chances is problematic. This chapter reexamines equity in an attempt to advance the discourse beyond the debate about strategies to close the achievement gap between White…

The bibliography presented in this bulletin purports to cover the printed material issued in this country concerning intelligence and educational tests during the period from January 1, 1918 to June 30, 1922. It has been the purpose of the compilers to make the bibliography as useful to students and to practical school people as possible. To that…

While some proponents of testing rest their hopes for stronger learning on the expectation that tests alone will motivate students to work harder, most posit that better learning will result primarily from better teaching--due to curriculum changes, greater attention to student needs, stronger teacher motivation, or focused investments in…

Value-added models in education research allow researchers to explore how a wide variety of policies and measured school inputs affect the academic performance of students. Researchers typically quantify the impacts of such interventions in terms of "effect sizes", i.e., the estimated effect of a one standard deviation change in the…

Most educational measurement texts distinguish between norm-referenced (NR), or relative, methods of assigning letter grades to objective test scores, and criterion-referenced (CR), or absolute, methods. Both NR and CR approaches have serious limitations in typical classroom situations, and neither approach, in its pure form, may be entirely…