From the 1980s to the present, educational accountability in the United States has grown dramatically. Such accountability in U.S. school districts, although driven primarily by external demands, has internal manifestations as well. The chapter traces the historical development of internal evaluation in American school districts, then highlights…

There has been little data collected on how much testing actually goes on in America's schools and how the results are used. So in the Spring of 2014, the Council staff developed and launched a survey of assessment practices. This report presents the findings from that survey and subsequent Council analysis and review of the data. It also offers…

The effects of a school district's testing and evaluation activities cannot be effectively assessed without an understanding of the explicit and implicit goals embedded in the policies and practices of the district. A structured workshop process to elicit a district's intentions related to the effects--uses and impacts--of testing and evaluation…

This report describes how one of our nation's largest urban school systems works through the complexities of diverse testing programs, testing schedules, and students to produce timely results that help students, parents, teachers, administrators, and policy makers to produce sound decisions about learning. (Author)

Yearly administrations of a standardized achievement test are a part of the educational process in many school districts in the United States. The Systemwide Testing Program in the Austin Independent School District Office of Research and Evaluation has gradually developed a process and support materials whereby the test administrations are a tool…

This handbook exists to assist the staff of a Springfield, Illinois school district in implementing the district assessment program and to assist other local school units in developing and assessing an implementation program. Chapter 1 presents information on the philosophical and pragmatic background of comprehensive assessment programs, with…

The New Jersey Grade 11 High School Proficiency Test (HSPT11) consists of sections for reading, mathematics, and writing that must be passed as requirements for a high school diploma. Students who do not pass all three sections receive additional instruction and retake sections they have not passed. This booklet helps educators review, interpret,…

The role and influence of mandated testing in educational reform are reviewed. Mandated testing refers to large-scale (districtwide or statewide) multiple-choice testing programs used for policy purposes of evaluation and accountability, which includes nationally normed standardized achievement tests and tests custom-developed to reflect state and…

The 1992-93 school year was the second year of the implementation of the Vermont assessment program. Evaluation of the 1991-92 year yielded mixed results, with some evidence that the assessment program was having a strong impact on instruction, but other indications that the reliability of the portfolio scoring in both writing and mathematics was…

This paper extends a series of studies examining school district report cards, which began with investigations of Tennessee's report card data. Since 1988, the Texas State Board of Education has produced a report card on each school district to report district-level data. Texas district report card items were organized into student outcome…

This paper presents the latest in a series of studies examining school district report cards for their usefulness planning and implementing school improvement. The 1992-93 Arkansas report cards were studied. These were similar to the report cards from Tennessee that were the subject of the initial study in that they used and reported a…