It is time to replace the examination regime at 16 and 18 by something more appropriate. The coalition government has been solidifying its place by its Baccalaureate reforms at both ages, but this is a move in quite the wrong direction. Whatever the wider purposes that the examination system may serve, its core aim is to find out how well students…

The field of educational testing has become increasingly important for providing different stakeholders and decision-makers with information. This paper discusses basic standards for methodological approaches used in measuring literacy skills among adults. The authors address the increasing interest in skills measurement, the discourses on how…

The synthetic function is a weighted average of the identity (the linking function for forms that are known to be completely parallel) and a traditional equating method. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the benefits of the synthetic function on small-sample equating using various real data sets gathered from different…

The use of standardized tests for outcome assessment has grown dramatically in recent years. Two driving factors have been the No Child Left Behind legislation, and the increase in outcome assessment measures by accrediting agencies such as AACSB, the international accrediting body for business schools. Despite the growth in usage, little effort…

This handbook describes the responsibilities of district and school assessment coordinators in the administration of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA). This updated guidebook contains the following sections: (1) General Assessment Guidelines for All Assessments; (2) Writing Specific Guidelines; (3) Reading and Mathematics…

The widespread application of personal computers to educational and psychological testing has substantially increased the number of test administration methodologies available to testing programs. Many of these mediums are referred to by their acronyms, such as CAT, CBT, CCT, and LOFT. The similarities between the acronyms and the methods…

Psychometricians continue to introduce new approaches to setting cut scores for educational assessments in an attempt to improve on current methods. In this paper we describe the Item-Descriptor (ID) Matching method, a method based on IRT item mapping. In ID Matching, test content area experts match items (i.e., their judgments about the knowledge…

The activities of the Nucleus Testing Committee, particularly its Curriculum Related Subcommittee, of the Madison, Wisconsin public schools are described in relation to its effort to bring about increased awareness of the need for reexamination of both district-wide and local school evaluation procedures. The sub-committee's recommendations are…

"Testing for Justice Rationale" calls for schools to meet the needs of all children. The needs of children can be determined by comparing what children can do with what they can learn to do. Any discrepancy between achievement and potential indicates a need and it is only through adequate testing that these needs can be determined. This…

The National Education Association's (NEA) resolutions concerning standardized tests, teacher evaluation and subjective ratings, national testing and assessment, student rights, and the improvement of instruction are presented in this interim report of the Task Force on Testing. The NEA strongly encourages the elimination of group standardized…

Time spent in contact with academic course materials as a function of two testing schedules was measured using college undergraduates in an introductory Educational Psychology course. A multi-manipulation single organism design was employed with all subjects enabling both individual and group analysis. A study room equipped with an adjacent…

The author describes the testing efforts of Student Services in his school in the light of financial cutbacks, public demand for accountability, student demand for relevance and student apathy toward the counseling center. (Author/HMV)

Reviews research on student assessment and placement, focusing on problems and questions; methods of assessment; establishing cut scores; and evaluation of course placement systems. Includes an extensive bibliography. (LAL)

This continuing ERIC/CAPS series, entitled Searchlight Plus, consists of two components: first, an in-depth review of cited materials, including prime issues and trends, and implications for helping professionals; and, second, citations from an ERIC computer search on the topic. Series topics are selected in response to user requests. Presented in…

Most standardized testing programs do not furnish examples of the kinds of information young people actually know. Instead they indicate only (1) how far an individual student is above or below an average score, and (2) the average score of a classroom or a school in relation to others. In contrast, National Assessment evaluates educational…