By most measures, students with disabilities (SWDs) are not receiving the education they need and deserve in California schools and districts. In 2019, 187 of 333 (56 percent) districts were identified for differentiated assistance because SWDs did not meet standards for two or more priority areas on the California School Dashboard. California…

This policy brief summarizes and critiques the findings of the US Department of Education's Section 5005 Report on Rural Education. In September of 2018, the Department of Education released the "Section 5005 Report on Rural Education: Final Report." The report was written in response to a provision of the Every Student Succeeds Act of…

For more than four decades the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has tracked the achievement of U.S. students in major academic subjects. This national resource is the only assessment that states and now many urban districts can look to as an objective yardstick of their performance over time, relative to national benchmarks, and…

American education needs to be fixed, but national standards and testing are not the way to do it. The problems that need fixing are too deeply ingrained in the power and incentive structure of the public education system, and the renewed focus on national standards threatens to distract from the fundamental issues. Besides, federal control over…

The Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002, authorized the Southwest Regional Advisory Committee (RAC), whose members represent the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, to identify and prioritize the region's educational needs and recommend how those needs can be met. The Southwest RAC conducted three public…

This report presents the deliberations of the Northwest Regional Advisory Committee (NW RAC), one of 10 RACs established under the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 to assess the educational needs of the region. The Northwest RAC accepted its charge to identify educational needs and to make recommendations, working collaboratively as…

This report represents the deliberations of the Pacific Regional Advisory Committee (RAC), one of 10 RACs established under the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 to assess the educational needs of the region. The committee's report outlines educational needs across the state, districts, and territories of Hawai'i, the Commonwealth of…

The reports of four recent reform proposals for American education were analyzed: "A Nation at Risk,""Action for Excellence,""Academic Preparation for College," and "Making the Grade." The authors concluded that the commissions used weak arguments and poor data. Recommendations were made to remedy current…

This bulletin discusses current issues and practices in social studies assessment, ways to improve testing, and methodologies to strengthen the validity, reliability, and value of tests. The primary purpose of the bulletin is to bring the social studies profession up to date about the issues and strategies involving criterion-referenced testing.…

A needs assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is presented. It deals with cost, design and technical issues, and utility. Suggestions include cost reduction via assessment schedule cutbacks and re-use of released NAEP exercises; and a shift from federal to private funding by selling NAEP exercises with interpretative…

Audiences were surveyed at the federal, state, and local levels in an effort to determine how the National Assessment of Educational Progress could be made more useful in meeting their needs. Recommendations fell into several major categories: (1) increased dissemination of assessment materials and access to data; (2) increased data interpretation…

This report was compiled to serve as a reference on assessments of achievement in pre-college mathematics. Patterns of mathematical assessments are discussed in terms of the history and nature of assessments of achievement, the relationship between assessment and minimum competency testing, and the current status of state assessment programs.…

This report concerns the governance of the structure of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), especially the law and the role of the Assessment Policy Committee (APC). The major sources of evidence include interviews with APC members and National Institute of Education (NIE) staff, minutes of APC meetings and historical documents…

This paper evaluates the procedures and results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in science. A brief description of the 1981-82 assessment, funded by the National Science Foundation, precedes a discussion of strengths and weaknesses of the current science assessment program, conducted by Educational Testing Service. Major…

Suggesting implications for career education program development and revision, this document is one in a series of five publications reporting results of a career development needs study of four different age levels. In this document, the assessment of career development needs of adults (ages 26-35) is presented in three major sections. Section 1…