Discusses educational standards and accountability at open-door colleges. Suggests that reading, organizing, synthesizing, and writing skills are of prime importance and that, in order to strengthen these skills, at least one-third of all course testing should use a subjective format. (DR)

Student evaluations of an instructor who uses objective tests exclusively are here compared to evaluations of the same instructor using classroom tests which combine objective and subjective test formats. Class size and hour and manner of instruction were held constant; students were chosen at random by the computer registration process. The…

Reviews the decline of educational standards as reflected in national test scores and discusses four pedagogic causes for this decline: the abandonment of written tests in favor of objective, true/false testing techniques; nonpunitive grading and attendance policies; excessive use of technology in the classroom; and academic grade inflation. (JP)

While the practice of students evaluating their instructors has become common in many institutions of higher learning, and properly so, care should be taken that instructors who use both objective and subjective formats in their classroom testing not be disadvantaged as a result of this. (Author)

Schools and educators are being called to task so that students will be able to achieve academically and gain basic skills. While few people argue with the need for gradual, reasonable, and proven changes in curricula, the massive infusion of innovative curricula and teaching methods often intended to maximize affective learning may have had a…

A survey designed to investigate the causes of declining levels of student achievement indicated that (1) there has been an over-use of objective testing, (2) grade inflation is a serious problem, and (3) community colleges may have over-emphasized accommodation of unprepared students and under-emphasized cognitive learning. Recommendations to…