Laboratory courses serve as important gateways to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. One of the challenges in assessing laboratory learning is to conduct meaningful and standardized practical exams, especially for large multisection laboratory courses. Laboratory practical exams in life sciences courses are frequently…

This article reviews the "Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition" (WIAT-III), a newly updated individual measure of academic achievement for students in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 (age 4 years, 0 months to 19 years, 11 months). Suitable for use in educational, clinical, and research settings, the stated purposes of the WIAT-III…

After many previous failed attempts to reach illiterate adults, the award-winning South African "Kha Ri Gude" mass literacy campaign, launched in 2008, undertook to ensure that learners seized the opportunity to learn--for many adults, this was a "last chance". Written from an insider perspective by the campaign's founding…

The author describes the testing efforts of Student Services in his school in the light of financial cutbacks, public demand for accountability, student demand for relevance and student apathy toward the counseling center. (Author/HMV)

This book describes how educators at Harrison Elementary School in Twin Falls, Idaho, used the Standardized Timed Curriculum (STC) to raise students' standardized test scores. The monograph, which is divided into eight chapters, opens with an overview of testing in schools, the growth of the test-preparation business, and the need for school…

The Northwest Evaluation Association helped an Indiana school district develop a computerized adaptive testing system that was aligned with its curriculum and geared toward measuring individual student growth. Now the district can obtain such information from semester to semester and year to year, get immediate results, and test students on…

Two reports on the current status and future trends of state assessment programs are presented. Among the results summarized for 1977-1978 and also presented in chart form for the 41 states which administer testing programs are: 19 programs are mandated by state legislatures; 22 programs test all students in the grades or ages assessed;…

This document provides an overview of the history and current uses of student testing in California and a brief summary of some of the issues on the debate over assessment. In recent years, student testing has increasingly become a high-stakes enterprise in California. Today, policymakers are looking anew at various forms of testing to measure how…

The guiding principles and procedures for pupil assessment in Portuguese compulsory education were established by the Implementing Order No. 1/2005, 5th January, with amendments introduced by the Implementing Orders No. 18/2006, 14th March and No. 5/2007, 10th January, and apply to the learning objectives and competencies defined for the various…

Cognizant of individual learning differences, the Rhinebeck (New York) School District refused to settle for mandated Regents exams. Staff developed a successful exhibition program requiring all students in the 5th, 7th, 10th, and 12th grades to demonstrate their knowledge through a performance judged by using various rubrics. (MLH)

Deploring standardized testing deficiencies, the author obtained state funding to adapt England's Primary Language Record assessment to U.S. classrooms and piloted the literacy portion throughout California. Now 20 schools and districts across 8 states employ the Learning Record Assessment, accompanied by parental-involvement and…

This paper is concerned with the norm-referenced, standardized achievement, aptitude, and intelligence tests that are being administered to elementary and secondary school children in our schools today. Why do school systems continue the use of standardized tests despite all the abuse being heaped on the practice? (Author)

Prospects for reforming assessment are dim. Persistence of the "education crisis" is chiefly attributable to the testing industry's profit margins and its distrust of teachers--a ploy to preserve the educational power structure. Schools should be accountable to local communities, not corporate entities, as a Nebraska initiative shows.…

The Swedish school system comprises: (1) Pre-primary school (Forskola), typical age 1-5; (2) Preschool class in the compulsory school (Grundskola) typical age 6 (participation voluntary); (3) Compulsory school, typical age 7-16, grades 1-9, and (4) Upper secondary school, 17 programmes (4 mainly academic, 13 vocational), typical age 16-19, grades…

Research on the lack of correlation between standardized tests and school district goals has suggested that district goals might be better met by supplementing standardized tests with district-made criterion-referenced testing systems. This article reports on the development of such a system, the Academic Learning Progress Assessment System…