This review critiques the highly-praised and influential 2001 study, "Getting Tough? The Impact of High School Graduation Exams," which concluded that "minimum competency," or high school "graduation exams," had no effect on student achievement. The review compares the test classifications of "Getting…

This guide is designed to help parents gain a better understanding of testing and its role in the education of their children. It answers the following questions: (1) What are standardized tests? (2) What do standardized test scores tell me about my child? (3) How are standardized test scores used? (4) What are the limitations of standardized…

Standardized achievement tests are often misused as indicators of a school's quality or effectiveness relative to other schools. This is an incorrect use because it ignores variation among schools in student abilities, family support of education, student mobility, and other factors. People also misuse tests because they impute to them more…

This booklet is designed to help parents gain a better understanding of testing and its role in the education of their children. Answers to questions concerning the different types of tests given in schools, differences among these tests, how test results are used, what test scores mean and how the scores affect students are provided. Several…

This handbook, in two parts, constitutes a manual prepared by the American Federation of Teachers, for improving teachers' use of standardized tests. Part I outlines basic concepts and issues surrounding standardized testing for teachers, parents and school administrators. The terms norm-referenced tests, criterion referenced tests, minimum…

Focusing on formal testing programs involving academic achievement, the assessment of student performance in 28 large city school districts is described. In addition to presenting how districts have designed testing programs to meet the variety in the students they serve, this report also discussed test management, work with test publishers, test…

The Dallas (Texas) Independent School District has developed an assessment system that is fully integrated into its learning system, which also includes planning, instruction, and accountability. This paper describes the learning system in Dallas in terms of a four-part model: planning, instruction, assessment, and accountability. Following this,…

As a result of the increasing insistence that schools should concentrate on teaching basic skills, states and school districts have moved to establish minimum competencies for high school graduation, to be assessed by tests that demonstrate that students have achieved a certain level of mastery of basic skills. The Austin, Texas, Independent…

This article analyzes potential problems in using standardized achievement tests in early childhood education settings. The first problem discussed is whether the outcomes typically measured by standardized achievement tests are the outcomes about which early childhood educators are most concerned. Second, it is argued that a concern for test…

State-mandated student testing in Ohio is a combination of three different initiatives: (1) competency-based education (CBE) assessment; (2) achievement and ability testing; and (3) proficiency testing. This report describes the current testing requirements and some of the characteristics of each of these types of assessment. CBE assessment was…

The Nevada Proficiency Examination Program was established by the Nevada State Legislature in 1977 to identify students who might require additional assistance to maintain normal academic progress through school and to serve as a minimum competency examination, insuring that each student who receives a high school diploma has met certain minimum…

This publication (in both English and French versions) on learner assessment in workplace literacy programs begins with a discourse on some dimensions of the testing question. It discusses three major approaches to assessment in the broader area of adult literacy that can shed light in the domain of workplace literacy: traditional, competency…