The history of the development of National Assessment exercises from the project's inception in 1964 to the present is provided in this monograph. The chapter titles are as follows: I. Introduction; II. Rationale and Criteria for Writing Exercises for National Assessment; III. Initial Reviews; IV. Initial Studies; V. Subject Matter Reviews; VI.…

Educators are more interested in instruction and learning than in testing per se. If evaluation, the process of gathering information for instructional improvement, could be accomplished without the quantitative, formal processes of measurement and testing, there would be no need for them. Unfortunately, informal processes are more inefficient,…

This paper provides a historical review of national standardized testing and its relation to ethnic and racial minorities. In the pre-World War I period, psychological testing was conducted on the large masses of immigrants that were arriving in the U.S., and on black and white army draftees. Generally these tests showed that black draftees and…

In response to concerns raised by principals at both the elementary and intermediate levels regarding the amount of instructional time consumed by students taking tests which were not related to day-to-day instruction, a study was conducted of the amount of time spent preparing to give such tests and actually administering them, and the manner in…

The National Education Association's Task Force on Testing has stated its opinion that standardized tests are overused. The task force suggests that the application of sampling techniques and a variety of alternatives to current testing practices would accomplish the same purposes. Representatives of the testing industry have indicated that the…

To help college reading teachers develop an awareness of what standardized reading tests do and do not reveal about students' reading abilities, a study examined the testing of reading and criticized four major standardized tests. Results indicated that reading is tested through (1) reading passages accompanied by multiple choice questions, (2)…

"The Politics and Process of Evaluation and Decision Making in the Schools: The Shawnee Mission, Kansas, Experience" and "Use of National Assessment Model for Classroom Evaluation" were two papers presented at the Regional Conference of the National Council for the Social Studies. The first paper concerned the development of an…

Positive approaches to increase student achievement in language classes focus on the potential influence of norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests. The author cites instances to prove that teacher efficiency increases when teachers are held responsible for student achievement. Discussion of success factors relates testing practices…

An achievement testing framework is being developed by the Los Angeles Unified School District to assess the educational progress of 14,000 secondary level compensatory education students with something other than standardized tests. The technique of multiple matrix sampling was applied to the use of large item domains in the subject area of…

"Educational Measurement" has been the bible in its field since the first edition was published by ACE in 1951. The importance of this fourth edition of "Educational Measurement" is to extensively update and extend the topics treated in the previous three editions. As such, the fourth edition documents progress in the field and…