Student affect--the attitudes, interests, and values that students exhibit and acquire in school--can play a profoundly important role in students' postschool lives, possibly an even more significant role than that played by students' cognitive achievements. If student affect is so crucial, then why don't teachers assess it? One deterrent is that…

A discussion of why educators are not using measurable instructional objectives in spite of widespread acceptance of such goals as potentially useful instructional assets. (AA)

Most objectives should be behavioral, but stresses a need in devising sophisticated measurement tactics to assess current unmeasurable outcomes in educational instruction. (Author/ML)

Since mid-1971 the Instructional Objectives Exchange has been engaged in a major effort to develop and disseminate criterion-referenced tests in the fields of reading, mathematics, language arts, and social studies. This paper isolates the chief technical decision-alternatives faced in this project, such as: (1) the optimal number of tests to…

Assessment for learning involves the frequent, continual use of both formal and informal classroom assessments. It can be as simple as requiring students to respond to a lesson-embedded, one-item quiz as a way of gauging student understanding of what is being taught. Ideally, this innovative approach to classroom assessment is based on a careful…

A discussion of accountability of teacher performance using domain-referenced tests. (HB)

This booklet is designed to assist those responsible for conducting educational evaluations. The work contains a collection of recently developed technical procedures relevant to educational evaluation and to describe them in a straightforward manner. The guidelines are organized into three sections: 1) Objectives; 2) Measurement; and 3) Data…

Health education researchers have occasionally used measuring tools inappropriately. Test validity and the use of criterion-referenced tests are discussed in view of this need to improve health education research. Also described are handbooks containing measuring devices for the use of health education researchers. (CJ)

Costly state assessment programs present a need for re-appraisal of their function and resulting impact on state programs and individual educational environments. (RAO)

The most important instructional advance in America during the 1960's was the widespread advocacy and increased use of measurable instructional objectives. In spite of this acceptance, there are still problems in specifying minimal proficiency levels and measuring the attainment of objectives. On the other hand, measurable objectives make it…

Because of misconceptions regarding appropriate measurement strategies, it is necessary to draw distinctions between two major measurement methodologies, norm-referenced and criterion-referenced measurement, as they relate to determining basic academic capabilities. Norm-referenced measures are used to ascertain an individual's performance in…

Current successes and failures in U.S. educational measurement are reviewed, focusing on criterion-referenced testing. Pluses and minuses are listed for the following: (1) the move toward authentic assessment; (2) the dominance of criterion-referenced assessment; and (3) item response theory applications. Each area is a double-edged sword. (SLD)

This book consists of six self-instructional programs to be completed individually by the reader. Topics of the programs are: current conceptions of educational evaluation; modern measurement methods; instructional supervision; a criterion-referenced strategy; constructing teaching performance tests; using teaching performance tests; and…

Argues that affective outcomes should be addressed instructionally and that student affect should be assessed formally. How student affect should be measured is considered. It is suggested that self-report measures be used and that Likert-type inventories usually meet the needs of classroom teachers. (SLD)

This report describes and evaluates a training program for educational researchers conducted prior to and following the 1969 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. The report's description of each of the program's 12 specific training sessions, which served a total of 542 educational researchers, includes the following…