Reports on a survey of community college faculty chairs and administrators to identify institutional initiatives to enhance student performance on the College Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), assess faculty acceptance of and support for the CLAST mandate, and determine uses of aggregate CLAST scores in formative and summative evaluations. (DMM)

Student assessment programs in Florida's community and junior colleges are described in this report in terms of theory, practice, and policy. Following introductory material on the background and purpose of the study, which involved statewide surveys of coordinators of student assessment programs, an extensive literature review is presented. The…

Florida's Commissioner of Education recently appointed a task force to review current standards for the College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST) and the effect of raising the levels of passing scores that are proposed for 1989. There is now a sufficient history of the CLAST to provide an understanding of the program's benefits and liabilities.…

The Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) is a statewide program designed to ensure that all students attending public colleges and universities have the basic reading, mathematics, and writing skills necessary to perform effectively at the college level. All entering first-time freshmen are required to take the TASP test, which has a basic skills…

From 1946 to 1976, the field of higher education operated in a growth-based mode, encouraged by government decisions and financed by government funds. During the massive recession and exploding federal deficits of the early seventies, however, legislators began examining the real value of higher education, and asking whether higher education was…