Background/Context: Issues of policy, practice, and assessment and the relationships between them have been a persistent focus in the practice and research of teacher preparation. However, the field has also long appreciated the tensions that persist between assessment approaches espoused in most teacher education programs and the realities of…

Current methods for detecting growth of students' problem-solving skills in math focus mainly on analyzing changes in test scores. Score-level analysis, however, may fail to reflect subtle changes that might be evident at the item level. This article demonstrates a method for studying item-level changes using data from a multiwave experiment with…

Research Findings: This study examined the measurement equivalence of the "Teaching Strategies GOLD[R]" assessment system across subgroups of children based on their primary language and disability status. This study is based on teacher-collected assessment data for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children for the fall of 2010, winter of 2010, and spring…

English language learners (ELLs) who are in the process of acquiring English as a second language for academic purposes, are often misidentified as having Language Learning Disabilities (LLDs). Policies regarding the assessment of ELLs have undergone many changes through the years, such as the introduction of a Response to Intervention (RTI)…

The SAS Educational Value-Added Assessment System (SAS[R] EVAAS[R]) is the most widely used value-added system in the country. It is also self-proclaimed as "the most robust and reliable" system available, with its greatest benefit to help educators improve their teaching practices. This study critically examined the effects of SAS[R] EVAAS[R] as…

Discusses the importance of fairness in evaluation studies of second-language programs and the potential for misinterpretation of studies which are not program-fair. Strategies designed to overcome this problem from the perspective of standardized tests include: specific tests for each program, program-specific plus program-neutral measures,…

The accuracy and fairness of standardized testing is taken very seriously in the education world. These issues are a major focus of both the testing experts who develop standardized tests and the researchers who endeavor to ensure a test's fairness, reliability, validity, and accuracy. But many issues remain both controversial and complex. The…

In this article, the author approaches accountability testing from a more micro level and offers a response to the question, "What can be done to get assessment right at the classroom level?" The author's answer refers back to accountability issues by considering that class of assessments most commonly used for such a purpose, herein referred to…

Increased demands for colleges and universities to engage in outcomes assessment for accountability purposes have accelerated the need to bridge the gap between higher education practice and the fields of measurement, assessment, and evaluation. The "Handbook on Measurement, Assessment, and Evaluation in Higher Education" provides higher…

The National Council for the Social Studies is concerned with how the social studies teaching profession can enhance learning in history and the social sciences and develop the skills necessary for participatory citizenship. The purpose of this position statement is to demonstrate how testing and evaluating social studies students can contribute…

Salem-Teikyo University (STU) (West Virginia) has been charged with developing a student assessment plan to be fully implemented by 1995. This report is a first step toward this plan, presenting the perspective, paradigms, possibilities, and a proposal for the assessment of student outcomes. The perspective advocated is that of the Center for…

Handicapped children of cultural and linguistic groups different from those of the majority culture are presently unable to attain an appropriate education. Bilingual/multicultural exceptional children are overrepresented in special education classes in comparison to their percentage of the total population, as a result of biased assessment…