This article features FAST-R, or Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading, a new assessment tool that measures critical-reading skills. FAST-R was developed by the the nonprofit Boston Plan for Excellence (BPE), a local education foundation, to provide teachers with information about what students are thinking when they try to find…

This article discusses the positive and negative consequences of large-scale testing on five key stakeholders of testing results: students, teachers, administrators, policymakers and parents. The factors that affect the nature of testing consequences are also discussed and means that may provide remedies for associated pitfalls are proposed.

Since its inception in 1969, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been the nation's leading indicator of what American students know and can do. The focus of this chapter is on how NAEP, as it exists today, may be useful to educators, in particular four aspects of NAEP that may be of wide interest and use. This chapter…

Developed by the National Education Association Task Force on Testing, this list of alternatives to standardized tests and testing programs includes the use of anecdotal records, oral presentations, student contracts, self and peer evaluations, and teacher-made tests.

Author describes current controversy in England over whether or not personnel trainers should be qualified by standard examinations. He also notes growing consensus" that personnel and training staffs there are behind the times, below standards in other professions and not applying behavioral sciences to industry as fully as possible.…

Contends that educational reform strategies that feature measurement-driven instruction as their centerpiece are often maligned as "quick fixes." Although asserting that measurement-driven instruction has potential benefits, notes that assessment experts should share their knowledge with policymakers to avoid ineffective strategies. (Author/NB)

Describes a program to certify state and district judges of high school debate tournaments. Covers constructing the written test, evaluating the ballot test, implementing certification, and assessing the program. (PD)

This article discusses the five studies included in this issue. Each article addressed the same topic, population invariance of equating. They all used data from major standardized testing programs, and they all used essentially the same statistics to evaluate their results, namely, the root mean square difference and root expected mean square…

The need for an independent mechanism that regulates, or audits, the testing enterprise is discussed along with a critique of current mechanisms for challenging a high-stakes test or its use and the need for independent auditing of the commercial test industry. Models for an auditing mechanism are reviewed. (SLD)

This report presents the results of a research and development effort for SpeechRater? Version 1.0 (v1.0), an automated scoring system for the spontaneous speech of English language learners used operationally in the Test of English as a Foreign Language™ (TOEFL®) Practice Online assessment (TPO). The report includes a summary of the validity…

The evaluation of a testing program is necessary before or during a sound total project evaluation. Ideally, the testing program study should be concurrent with, and equal in magnitude to, the total project evaluation. Step one in an evaluation is to define the testing program's objectives in operational terms. Step two is a thorough description…

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…

Urges teachers to set up a program for testing writing which uses holistic scoring. (DD)

When evaluating the effectiveness of an educational program, multiple matrix sampling is particularly effective and efficient when the goal of the evaluation is estimating group (as opposed to individual) performance. The technique is described in some detail, with its advantages and disadvantages, and examples of its application are given.…

Notes that, beginning in the mid-1970s, role of educational testing and assessment began to expand dramatically in response to reports portraying U.S. schools and students in less than favorable light. Sees the future status of new forms of assessment that are used to influence curricula and motivate teachers and students being related to their…