The measurement of student learning is becoming increasingly important in U.S. higher education. One way to measure learning is through longitudinal testing, but this becomes especially difficult when applied to cumulative learning within programs in situations of low persistence. In particular, many Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) find…

Standardizing aspects of assessments has long been recognized as a tactic to help make evaluations of examinees fair. It reduces variation in irrelevant aspects of testing procedures that could advantage some examinees and disadvantage others. However, recent attention to making assessment accessible to a more diverse population of students…

This handbook is designed as a quick reference for first-year teachers who find themselves in an assessment driven environment with little experience to help make sense of the language, underlying philosophy, or organizational structure of the assessment system. The handbook begins with advice on developing and evaluating effective learning…

This report is the first volume of a projected series of "General Information Yearbooks" to be updated and published annually by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and is designed to aid the readers of the National Assessment's reports to understand the philosophies and goals of the project, its methods for developing…

Available designs and instruments for evaluation are not adequate to meet the varied needs of evaluation. Therefore, evaluation needs to be reshaped in terms of 1) consideration of how and where currently available theories, designs, and instruments are proving useful, 2) identification of needs that cannot be met ith currently available…

In this paper, problems with testing as a method of educational evaluation are discussed and suggestions are made to schools with respect to strategies for more effective evaluation procedures. Various evaluation processes, their uses, and their limitations, are described. (WI)

Drawing on work from a number of disciplines, this volume brings together experimental and theoretical information relevant to the problems of assessing children's reading comprehension. After a short introduction, the first section defines reading comprehension, presenting theoretical issues intended to provide an understanding of what is being…

TESTS SHOULD BE CAREFULLY EXAMINED IF TEACHING OBJECTIVES ARE TO MATCH TEST OBJECTIVES. TEACHERS SHOULD BECOME MORE PROFICIENT IN THE BROADER ASPECTS OF EVALUATING READING PERFORMANCE AND SHOULD EMPLOY A WIDER VARIETY OF EVALUATION TECHNIQUES. THE USE OF STANDARDIZED READING TESTS AS INDICATORS OF INSTRUCTIONAL READING LEVEL SHOULD BE ABANDONED.…

The adoption of alternative pedagogical philosophies in the classroom has led to an increased use of technology to expand and enhance authentic, contextual learning environments. Correspondingly, these new approaches have also led to a growing dissatisfaction with existing evaluation methodologies to evaluate knowledge. This paper proposes such an…

The purpose of this paper is to argue that the measurement of child outcomes is the major stumbling block in estimating the extent to which equality of opportunity exists for children in our nation's schools. This paper has three parts. The introduction discusses the concept of equal educational opportunity, as defined and then redefined over the…

Discusses a program implemented in Wichita, Kansas, public schools to assess curricular effectiveness in music education. Expounds on the goals of the program, participants involved, problems encountered, and the eventual outcome of the evaluation. Maintains that curriculum must be organized around specific musical objectives rather than musical…

This module, one of a series of 127 performance-based teacher education learning packages focusing upon specific professional competencies of vocational education teachers, deals with assessing student performance of psychomotor skills. Included in the module are learning experiences that address the following topics: important considerations…

The 1975 Community/Junior College Conference sought to define and describe evaluation, discuss measuring devices, and underscore the ethical reasons for fair evaluation. William P. Gorth began by discussing the purpose of evaluation--to provide data to a specified decision-maker for decision-making--and the implications which could be drawn from…

This state assessment at the third-grade level is the first stage of a proposed three-year evaluation cycle of third, sixth, and ninth grades in North Carolina to aid personnel in making accurate decisions regarding improvement in the social studies curriculum. Students were randomly selected to represent the third-grade population in the state…