This article applies Bourdieu's notion of "cultural capital" to historical, documentary research which investigates the construction of a scholastic canon within England's A-level music examinations. A digest of the ways in which this canon evolved between 1951 and 1986 is presented in support of the idea that examiners' responses to…

This book provides a brief historical review of outcomes assessment in higher education and a general guide to designing, implementing, and evaluating assessment programs. Chapter 1 provides several definitions of commonly used terms and a review of the major actors and the political context. It identifies factors contributing to the recent push…

Activities of the Test Development and Research Office (TEDRO), a division of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), are described. The WAEC is an international educational and professional testing organization established to serve its four member countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia. The U.S. Agency for International…

Plans for the development of The East African Examinations Council (EAEC) are outlined and the feasibility of long-range technical assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) is discussed. The EAEC was established in 1967 by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Its purpose is to conduct within East Africa the academic, technical,…

The expansion of The West African Examination Council's (WAEC) Test Development and Research Office (TEDRO), from January 1969 through August 1973, is described. The development of TEDRO as an institution was of primary importance; the continuation of test development and educational services was the other major goal during this period of time.…

This booklet was designed to help teacher education students identify and explain certain basic principles of educational measurement and apply them to the development of a valid and reliable assessment program that measures the achievement of a set of educational objectives from a curriculum that they teach. It is intended for use in the Sydney…

In the first section of this chapter the meanings of the terms "test,""measurement,""evaluation," and "standardization" are discussed. Because the purpose of this chapter is to relate published tests, particularly those that are norm-referenced, to their use in evaluation, the nature of norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced tests are…