A series of questions designed to challenge school administrators to reconsider the purposes, selection, use, and interpretation of tests and test results in their school programs. (Author/DN)

The problem session approach represents a restructuring of traditional testing and evaluation procedures aimed at assessing student achievement and ability. (JS)

The author outlines current federal interest in the competency testing movement, explaining the federal role as supportive, with no plans for a national test, but with concern for equal educational opportunity. Federal activities are described, including the new NIE Office of Testing, Assessment, and Evaluation. (SJL)

Reviews the possible dangers of mandated competency testing and suggests some alternatives. (JM)

Can real comparability of examination standards be attained between different boards and different years? Argues that the attempt has to be made. (Editor)

"Test Scoring" provides insight into psychometric procedures as used by a professional testing company or in large-scale projects. The book contains an overview of standard test theory, a discussion of factor analytic theory, and an exploration of special applications and problems. (SLD)

Discusses three purposes of tests and assessments in educational performance evaluation: providing information for the purpose of accounting to people outside of schools; providing information to teachers to help them improve instruction; and helping students learn. Also addressed are problems of test bias and the need to coordinate testing with…

Some of the challenges that test publishers face in constructing educational assessments that meet high technical quality as prescribed in the "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" (AERA, APA, NCME, 1999) are examined. Federal educational initiatives are used to illustrate demands on technical quality that challenge the efforts of…

In 1988, U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett proclaimed Chicago's public schools to be the worst in the nation. Since that time, Chicago has been at the forefront of urban school reform. Beginning with a dramatic move in 1990 to shift power away from the central office, through CEO Paul Vallas's use of standardized testing to hold schools…

In recent years, policymakers have begun to emphasize the goal that all students graduate from high school college- and career-ready (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Association of State Boards of Education, & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2008). Research…

An educational assessment embodies an argument from a handful of observations of what students say, do or make in a handful of particular circumstances, to what they know or can do in what kinds of situations more broadly. This article discusses ways in which research into the nature and development of expertise can help assessment designers…

A number of political issues are involved in educational testing and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Many school officials are disturbed by the number of tests administered and the information and instructional time lost; they are reluctant to accede to further voluntary testing programs which might duplicate current…

This speech deals with the assumptions and approaches underlying educational assessment and suggests alternatives to standardized testing. It is proposed that the assumption that test items can be standardized is at the base of assessment problems; while there are standard mental functions which children develop, there are no standard items that…

The New York State Preliminary Competency Test in Reading is designed to measure a student's ability to understand written material of varying levels of difficulty. Results are used to evaluate a student's current level of achievement in reading and to indicate the extent of compensatory or remedial help which may be necessary to pass the final…

The University of Iowa has been involved with the development, implementation, and operation of computer-based test-item pools and a test construction and course management system titled IPSIM (Iowa's Item Pool System for Instructional Management), originally devised for a freshman medical course in the Pathology Department of the College of…