The Indiana Basic Competency Skills Testing and Remediation Program manual states that the purpose of the testing program is to assist Indiana's educators with the implementation of remediation programs, and to assess overall educational programs. Procedures for administering the tests of reading, mathematics, and writing in grades 3 and 6 are…

The New Jersey Educational Assessment Program was initiated in l972-73 school year to assess high school students' performance in the basic skill areas of reading and mathematics. The High School Proficiency Test (HSPT) will become part of the graduation requirement for the ninth grade class of 1985-86. This instrument is a more comprehensive…

Designed to provide a context for English teachers' deliberations on what they should be teaching, this paper provides excerpts from 21 news items pertaining to significant educational and social events and trends. The news items deal with a wide range of topics, including the back-to-the-basics movement; the trend toward state-mandated programs…

The aim of the South Carolina Basic Skills Assessment Program was to meet legislative requirements, to improve instruction and to integrate instructional sensitivity into the state's educational programs for grades K-12 in the basic skill areas of reading, writing and mathematics. In their task of identifying, compiling and revising educational…

Committees on Content Analysis and Correlation Studies were appointed by the Alabama State Superintendent of Education to provide information regarding the similarities and differences between the Californa Achievement Tests (CAT), Levels 13-C and 16-C, and the Alabama Basic Competency Tests (BCT), grade 3 and 6. The major purpose of these…

This catalogue of student competencies, gleaned from 10,000 competency statements developed by secondary school districts, is designed to allow flexibility at the local level. Districts are free to adopt or modify this set of graduation competencies by following a six-step process: organize, orient a task force, identify priority competency…

The Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) was designed to provide information on the extent to which Michigan students have attained minimal performance objectives. This manual was written to help local Michigan school district staff read, interpret, and use MEAP data. The 1977-78 MEAP provided objective-referenced achievement measures in…

Remarks made at the conference are summarized in seven sections of this narrative report: (1) update: recent events concerning testing,--representing the viewpoints of school districts, professional associations, government agencies, and research organizations; (2) National Institute of Education (NIE) study of school districts' use of test and…

A project continued activity to improve the occupational competency assessment program for evaluating and certifying vocational education teachers. Development of new testing was continued by Temple University, The Pennsylvania State University, and University of Pittsburgh. Workshops for test developers were conducted to ensure standardization of…

This paper describes Oregon's experiences with state performance requirements. It explains that these requirements cover three areas: budgeting on a program basis, providing a schooling environment designed to meet student needs through a systematic management process, and setting learning performance standards for students, including graduation…

A workshop attended by faculty members from three Florida junior colleges and one university was held in response to legislation requiring students to demonstrate minimum communications and computation skills before entering upper division programs. General conclusions reached during the workshop focused on the value of competency testing in…

Minimal competency testing is the most recent evolution of the accountability movement and of the competency based education movement. It focuses on the basic academic skills of reading, writing, and arithemtic. It presumes the state will set educational objectives, and that the local school district will conduct its program so that the objectives…

Student test scores are increasingly used to judge the competence of the educational enterprise. Exaggeration of scores is the result of directing attention away from the individual student achievement to the average scores of schools, districts, and states. Implications and recommendations are discussed. (BJV)

This article addresses an important problem that faces educators in assessing students' competence levels in learned tasks. Data from 165 students from Massachusetts and Minnesota in the United States are used to examine the validity of five assessment modes (multiple choice test, scenario, portfolio, self-assessment and supervisor rating) in…

Business cares about education standards because the well-being of their companies and every American is at stake. In the international marketplace, says former Lockheed-Martin chief executive officer (CEO) Norman Augustine, the United States is involved in a "battle of the classrooms." As a result, business leaders believe that…