Lists 15 criteria for evaluating the procedures to be used in the assessment of student listening and speaking skills. Prefaces the list with statements concerning predictability and the relationships among the language arts. (RL)

Presents a hypothetical scenario in which executives of three testing companies meet in 1968 to devise a way to justify the existence of standardized testing. Their solution is minimum competency testing. (IRT)

The purpose of the "State of the Literacy and Essential Skills Field" report is to provide an environmental scan showing the state of Literacy and Essential Skills (L/ES) across the country, from the perspective of the Canadian Literacy and Learning Network (CLLN) and its national network of partners, both within and outside the Literacy…

The study compared minimum competency test scores of approximately 1,000 learning disabled Florida tenth graders with those of regular class peers and surveyed 200 employers concerning the perceived importance of the competency test skills. Item performance, skill performance, and mastery scores on the State Student Assessment Test-II (SSAT-II)…

A study was conducted to determine if significant attitudinal differences concerning evaluation by principals could be found between Mississippi's kindergarten teachers and other grade-level teachers immediately after administrators had evaluated teachers with the Mississippi Teacher Assessment Instruments (MTAI). Designed to assess minimum…

The implicit definition of competence and the inferential chain that links the standard-setting process to the decision outcomes of the method are considered for two classes of standard-setting procedures: those involving data-free judgments of items and those involving data-based judgment of items. The major underlying assumptions of competence…

Three members of the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association express their positions about minimum competency standards. Kenneth Goodman presents a humanitarian, idealistic view of the controversy and questions the effectiveness of legislative mandates. Roger Farr expresses concern that limitations of testing procedures might…

False premises upon which many legislated programs for minimal competency testing are based are identified and discussed. (JT)

Minimum competencies are being imposed on the schools by state legislators frustrated by declining academic achievement. Teachers must not allow this movement to engender a "teaching for the test" mentality. They must work for a balanced curriculum, good remedial programs, and competency tests which provide real feedback for teaching. (SJL)

A problem raised by teacher use of basic skills checklists is the possibility of focusing on listed skills to the exclusion of others, including necessary prerequisite skills. (JMF)

A survey of 46 states found that about half the states are using or studying special education teacher competency tests. The paper analyzes survey results by specific content areas being tested, including basic knowledge, identification and characteristics of special needs students, processing skills, assessment, learning theory, teaching…

This paper evaluates relations among criterion-referenced test scores, subsequent predicted remediation need decisions, and actual performance without remediation on Georgia's state minimal competency test. Results from examining 1,310 students' scores indicated that many students would have been required to be remediated who subsequently passed…

The development and implementation of the EQF, as a meta-framework for the promotion of transparency, quality assurance, mobility and mutual recognition of qualifications, has given rise to some difficulties. These are due partly to different definitions of competences, skills and knowledge. Taking the German-speaking countries as an example, the…

Most students have some experience with purported measures of psychological constructs before entering college. Critical analysis of such measures requires familiarity with test development strategies. The activities outlined in this article allowed students to complete the steps involved in scale construction and empirical analysis in a…

This study compared elementary and special education teachers' knowledge of when K-3 students develop key reading competencies, their knowledge of who is responsible for teaching K-3 students key reading competencies, and teachers' perceptions of their own instructionally relevant competencies to those standards articulated within their state's…