The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002) has produced an explosion of interest in the use of assessment to measure and improve student learning. Initially focused on annual state tests, educators quickly learned that results came too little and too late to identify students who were falling behind. At the same time, evidence from the…

This report describes the purposes of benchmark assessments and provides recommendations for selecting and using benchmark assessments--addressing validity, alignment, reliability, fairness and bias and accessibility, instructional sensitivity, utility, and reporting issues. We also present recommendations on building capacity to support schools'…

"Classroom Assessment in Action" clarifies the multi-faceted roles of measurement and assessment and their applications in a classroom setting. Comprehensive in scope, Shermis and Di Vesta explain basic measurement concepts and show students how to interpret the results of standardized tests. From these basic concepts, the authors then…

The purpose of this research study was to illustrate the ways in which out-of-level testing policies have changed over the three years from 2000-2001 to 2003-2004. In 2000-2001, 12 states were using out-of-level tests to measure student progress toward content standard proficiency. A detailed research study conducted at the end of 2000-2001 to…

Emerging and traditional forms of assessment in U.S. higher education are considered in this collection of five conference papers from the 1985 National Conference on Assessment in Higher Education. Included are a foreword by Education Secretary William J. Bennett and concluding remarks by Clifford Adelman. Paper titles and authors are as follows:…