This study examined reliability and validity of the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA), based on samples of parents and teachers' ratings of 1,145 entering kindergartners in the Southwest. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that DECA presented good reliability and validity for manifest variables, corroborating previous findings. Three…

Arizona's Vail School District won this year's Sylvia Charp Award because of its revolutionary--and truly collaborative--approach to standards-based curriculum development that it is sharing with the rest of the state. This article takes a look at how they did it.

This is the 21st year of statewide student testing under the Arizona Student Achievement Program, which mandates the use of a nationally standardized norm-referenced achievement test in reading, mathematics, and language in the state's schools. In the 2000-2001 school year, students in grades 1 through 9 were tested using the Stanford Achievement…

This is the 17th year of statewide student testing under the Arizona Student Achievement Program. To fulfill the requirements of Arizona law, a nationally standardized, norm-referenced achievement test in the subjects of reading, language, and mathematics must be adopted and implemented for Arizona schools. For the 1996-97 school year, the State…

This resource guide was designed for teachers and administrators in Arizona school districts to assist them in preparing functional and meaningful programs of student achievement testing. The format of the guide is based on fundamental questions often posed by educators regarding norm-referenced and criterion-referenced testing. Particular…

In this article we examine student performance on mandated tests in grades 3, 4, and 5 in one state. We focus on this interval, which w e term "the fourth grade window," based on our hypothesis that students in grade four are particularly vulnerable to decrements in achievement. The national focus on the third grade as the critical…

This report reveals the problems with claims made by Arizona state public education officials that English Language Learners (ELLs) are thriving under English-only instruction. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the state's accountability system, Arizona LEARNS, require all students, including ELLs, to participate in statewide…

Test results are presented from the 11th year of the Arizona Pupil Achievement Testing Program, administered as mandated by the state legislature, which requires that a nationally standardized norm-referenced achievement test in reading, grammar, and mathematics be given to students in grades 2 through 11, with representative samples tested in…

Test results are presented for the Arizona Pupil Achievement Testing Program for fall 1991. In the 1991-92 school year, the state legislature mandated that only grades 4, 7, and 11 be tested. Although school districts could elect to test other grades, results in this report represent only tests for grades 4, 7, and 11 on either the Iowa Tests of…