A minimum standards amendment to the New Jersey Public School Act of 1975 requires the testing of public school students to determine proficiency in the minimum basic skills of reading and mathematics, under the auspices of the New Jersey State Department of Education's Educational Assessment Program. To meet the mandates of this amendment, the…

Addressing the issue of testing and evaluation in English at the university level, this paper focuses on the development and use of the English Placement Test developed by the California State University system. The discussion of this testing program is placed within a framework of four testing principles: testing is an essential part of learning…

This report deals with ways to report basic skills test data which would facilitate the identification of student weaknesses. Under study are the technical aspects and methods associated with the reporting of objective-referenced data. An exploration is then made into the use of patterns of errors in responding to basic skills test items to…

This collection of articles is designed to enhance leadership for the promotion of effective evaluation and learning. The articles include an Introduction, by Fred Snyder; Exerting Leadership Toward Effective Evaluation of Pupil Performance, by T. L. Drake; The Elementary Principal as an Instructional Leader, by John Ourth; The Secondary Principal…

The logical and psychological bases for setting cutting scores for criterion-referenced tests are examined; they are found to be intrinsically arbitrary and are often examples of misdirected precision and axiomatization. The term, criterion referenced, originally referred to a technique for making test scores meaningful by controlling the test…

In eight chapters, this document offers guidelines for school administrators on evaluating schools and school programs, based on a poll of administrators and consultants. The introduction discusses the purpose of evaluation, especially school improvement, and presents a list of evaluation standards. Chapter 1 outlines steps in evaluation planning,…

Results of the second administration of the New Jersey Minimum Basic Skills (MBS) Tests in reading and mathematics are reported for students in grades 3, 6, 9, and 11. The reading tests are organized according to clusters of items: (1) word recognition; (2) comprehension; and (3) study skills. The mathematics tests are also organized into…

To assist districts in analyzing and using the second set of results (the summary reports for class, school and district) from the New Jersey Minimum Basic Skills Tests, this guidelines booklet was developed. The booklet is divided into four main sections: (1) required interpretation of the summary reports; (2) interpretation checklist; (3)…

The first part of this report is a question-and-answer survey of minimum competency legislation, testing programs, and remedial programs. It includes the questions of both the educator and the lay person. Topics include: minimum competency tests, the debate over minimum competency programs, what happens after testing, and what citizens should look…