The study examined the effects of emphasizing the competitive environment in a testing situation through the use of rewards and game techniques. Neither rewards nor games had an effect on test performance. (Author/MF)

This review considers the treatment given by four recent educational measurement texts to these six current issues in testing: criterion v norm-referenced tests; accountability; test bias and cultural fairness; the impact of testing on student self-esteem and motivation; privacy; and errors in measurement. (SJL)

Discusses evaluation of tests both in terms of their measurement properties and their potential social consequences. Presents a model for evaluating test validity based on empirical evidence as well as on ethical decisions. Stresses the importance of construct validity as a rational foundation for test predictiveness and relevance; and the…

This study demonstrates that multiple matrix sampling procedures can be used to collect assessment data efficiently, unabstrusively, and reliably. (MB)

Presents results from a national survey of two-year colleges regarding placement practices for calculus. High school records were the most important factor, followed by placement test results and college entrance examination scores. (DMM)

Describes the Dutch rating system for test quality, which evaluates a test for seven criteria, and analyses the results of test ratings from the past 18 years. Results show a steady increase in test quality in the Netherlands that can be attributed to use of better tests and declining use of tests of less quality after evaluation. (SLD)

Describes the 1997 revision of the Dutch Rating System for Test Quality used by a committee of the Dutch Association of Psychologists. The rating system evaluates test quality on seven criteria using a checklist for each criterion. Comment sections provide additional information, and weighting rules establish the final grades. (SLD)

This article focuses on Louis Guttman's contributions to the classical theory of educational and psychological tests, one of the lesser known of his many contributions to quantitative methods in the social sciences. Guttman's work in this field provided a rigorous mathematical basis for ideas that, for many decades after Spearman's initial work,…

This article recognises the well-established processes available to educators for the validation of competence, however acquired, and suggests that these mechanisms could be deployed more frequently in future. This proposition is based on employers' adoption of work-based learning strategies that focus on learning outcomes rather than on…

Local assessment systems are being marketed as formative, benchmark, predictive, and a host of other terms. Many so-called formative assessments are not at all similar to the types of assessments and strategies studied by Black and Wiliam (1998) but instead are interim assessments. In this article, we clarify the definition and uses of interim…

This paper estimates the impact of the Michigan school finance reform, "Proposal A," on education inputs and test scores. Using a difference-in-difference estimation strategy, I find that school districts in Michigan used the increase in educational spending generated through "Proposal A" to increase teacher salaries and reduce…

The onset of the standards-based movement in education in the early 1980's, bolstered by the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) of 2002, led many school districts to shift from a culture of regulatory, process-oriented compliance to one that is more results-oriented, primarily based on state-adopted summative assessment targets in…

In the U. S. 25 states operate from an assessment based frame of reference that includes some form of high school exit examination. Enhancements for existing assessment and accountability systems need to be explored according to the findings of Elizabeth Towles. The problem addressed in this study was that little research had been conducted to…

Placement exams are high-stakes assessments that determine many students' college trajectories. More than half of entering students at community colleges are placed into developmental education in at least one subject, based primarily on scores from these assessments, yet recent research fails to find evidence that placement into remediation…