The first complete survey of all state education reports was conducted in 1994. For the 1998 edition, state education staff were asked to identify and update all current state reports that provide accountability for K-12 education or that report on a set of education indicators. As of August, 1998, all states have at least 1 annual accountability…

Examines the purposes of large-scale assessment programs, outlines the dangers and benefits of these assessments, considers the research evidence about the consequences of assessment, discusses how to evaluate assessment quality, and presents some ideas about the variables that influence the probabilities for good and bad assessment. (SLD)

Discusses issues associated with the use of holistic and analytic scoring methods in large-scale student assessments. Reviews the education literature and describes the recent Saskatchewan study comparing the results of the two scoring approaches applied to an achievement test taken by about 1,600 third graders. (SLD)

Discusses a project demonstrating that standardized tests can be developed in vocational agriculture under certain conditions to serve a wide geographical area and a diversified agriculture. (HD)

Articles in this issue vary widely in method, content, and sample size, but come together to produce a valuable collection of knowledge about education in the Pacific Basin, with emphasis on issues of under-representation. The articles are: (1) "Effects of a Culturally Competent School-Based Intervention for At-Risk Hawaiian Students"…

This document consists of articles 1 through 39 published in the electronic journal "Education Policy Analysis Archives" for the year 2003. (SLD)

Five articles in this special issue present the approaches to accountability found in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland, provinces that represent 85% of all Canadian elementary and secondary school students. The articles are then discussed by representatives of four national Canadian educational associations. (SLD)

The document discusses the decrease of student scores on the citizenship section of the statewide Pennsylvania Educational Quality Assessment (EQA). The document presents an overview of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education goals, describes behaviors that EQA measures, and provides sample questions for fifth, eighth, and eleventh-grade…

In the initial article by Edward Roeber, performance assessment is defined as an exercise in which the student demonstrates specific skills and competencies rather than selecting one of several predetermined answers to an exercise. Such as assessment contains four components: (1) a reason for the assessment; (2) a particular peformance to be…

The seven chapters of this theme issue explore current developments in research into educational accountability. State educational performance reporting policies, resource allocation for accountability, and educational reforms in Canada, Hong Kong, and Malaysia are discussed. The final chapters consider accountability policy research. (SLD)

The topic of high-stakes testing (HST) is important because HST has direct and indirect effects on career-technical education (CTE) programs and timely because HST increasingly enters public discussion and has produced a large body of research and practice that generalizes to CTE. A review of HST has identified two persisting dilemmas: policy and…

Quality Performance Accreditation (QPA), as mandated by the Kansas State Board of Education, requires schools to document student learning through multiple assessment strategies and requires students to participate in state-developed assessments in reading, writing, mathematics, and science. The Kansas National Education Association has joined…

The nature of educational evaluation and its interaction with policy in six state departments of education is examined. Case reports of research and evaluation units are presented for Virginia (by Gerald W. Bracey), Michigan (by David L. Donovan and Stanley A. Rumbaugh), Washington (by Alfred F. Rasp, Jr.), South Carolina (by Paul D. Sandifer),…

A state superintendent of education discusses standards from the point of view of a policymaker, acknowledging both educational and political elements. The objective for the policymaker is to take the work of researchers and educational theorists and make it something that practitioners and ultimately the public can understand. The first thing is…

This comprehensive evaluation of basic skills testing in California's elementary and secondary schools is divided into an executive summary and a collection of research reports. The summary evaluates current testing conducted by the state, school districts, and classroom teachers; describes experimental studies on new ways of testing and reporting…