The development of the portion of a basic skills test that would adequately assess the writing ability of entering college freshmen in New Jersey is described in this paper. The stages of the test development process that are discussed include the decision to incorporate a writing sample in the form of an essay on a specified topic, the selection…

From 1974 through 1978, three methods of assessing Scottish high school students' (O level) English achievement were studied: (1) Ordinary (O level) examinations; (2) assessment of writing skills (folio assessment); and (3) criterion referenced tests developed by the Scottish Council for Research in Education (SCRE) to measure the objectives of…

Clearly defined goals are described as the first component of a program evaluation. The goals of this booklet are: to demonstrate the need for clearly written statements of goals, outcomes, and objectives; to provide examples; to provide a method of deriving goals from already published materials; to demonstrate the relationship between writing…

Presented are abstracts and general information on 28 instruments useful for educational assessment of severely developmentally impaired students. An introductory section provides brief discussions on the limitations of the instruments, general rules for administering standardized tests, norm referenced tests, criterion referenced tests,…

Summarizing a two-part general report on a reading assessment of grades 8 and 12 in the province of British Columbia, this report provides the general background on the aims and methods of the assessment, presents information on the development of the test instrument, details the administration of the test, and reports its results. In addition,…

This paper describes Project HELP (Highlighting Early Learning Problems) stated to have been designed to determine or to develop a battery of screening instruments to identify those K-1 students who manifest learning problems indicative of exceptionality. The purposes, objectives, and a summary of the types of evaluation questions the study sought…

This is the report of a conference on accountability that was sponsored by the U.S. Office of Education and administered by the Cooperative Accountability Project with the advice and assistance of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. The purpose of the conference was to provide a meeting place in which…

The assessment and evaluation programs of Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, and Michigan, and the development and implementation of steps they initiated to progress toward the goal of accountability are described in detail in this report. Following the introduction, section 2 discusses the laws enacted by the four states that are the basis for their…

This book is a collection of 20 articles and research reports that deal with practical, technical issues of research methodology applicable to the study and evaluation of today's schools. The evaluation techniques suggested are aimed primarily at educational reform and improvement, rather than revolutionary change. Because all the authors are…

The low rate of agreement among readers of College Entrance Examination essays suggested the need to examine the qualities in student writing which caused wide variance in grading. To study this question, 300 homework papers by freshmen at three universities were graded by 60 distinguished readers in six fields. The following factors, by rank,…

The rationale underlying tests of social intelligence and some of the problems inherent in those tests are discussed. To measure social intelligence, paper and pencil tests were developed which were "situation free." These tests employed "stereotypic behavior of individual others." The stimuli used in the behavioral tests were…

This newsletter summarizes the work of a committee, set up by the Ministry of Education, which sought to define the objectives and the methods of student evaluation and to draw up a proposal for reforming and standardizing student evaluation in the comprehensive and the secondary school. Deficiencies of current methods of student evaluation are…

The evaluation of the third year of the Individually Prescribed Instruction (IPI) mathematics project at the Hall School in Minneapolis (grades 1-6) is discussed, and results for the three years are summarized. The process evaluation during the third year concentrated on three areas: group instructional methods, instructional materials other than…

Two projects that have explored the feasibility of computer-generated verbal score reports for the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills are reported. The first, the Madison Project, designed, produced, and evaluated computer-generated testing reports that were useful to teachers and informative to parents. The reports, which were narrative in format, were…

This bulletin addresses all concerned with examinations for the Certificate of Secondary Education, particularly teachers, with suggestions to improve the efficiency and fairness of examining. The bulletin is divided into two parts: Part I - Examining Techniques: General Principles, covers such major subjects as objectives of the course, analysing…