Traditional measures of teachers' competency have been widely criticized for their lack of authenticity and predictive validity. There is little evidence regarding the technical soundness of traditional teacher licensure tests and little research documenting the validity of such tests for identifying competent teachers or effective teaching.…

This article examines major trends in testing and accountability reform in the United States over the past decade. The review covers the apex and decline of the national experimentation with a range of alternative assessments and the rise of test-based accountability as a central policy initiative. These trends signify that testing has become a…

Vocational-technical students (n=92) and liberal arts students (n=156) were the subjects of a study conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of four instructional strategies intended to produce mastery. Strategies employed were: traditional instruction with no make-up exams; unlimited make-up exams with end of semester deadline; unlimited make-up…

This reaction paper stresses the importance of matching the qualitatively different types of educational decisions with appropriate types of tests. Reading instruction is used to illustrate that while standardized tests are helpful for student classification and program accountability, they are hazardous to instructional process decisions which…

This document outlines the framework and assessment design for the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Over the past 50 years, IEA has conducted comparative research studies focusing on educational policies, practices, and…

This research report recounts the procedures, results, and recommendations of a research project in which more than 200 tenth-grade students in Florida were tested (1) to determine whether aptitude treatment interaction (ATI) effects on syntactic maturity and on knowledge of structural relationships occur after several months of instruction; (2)…

As part of its mission, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) is committed to the development of the community of researchers who work in the area of assessment both nationally and internationally. The association also has a commitment to provide policymakers with the types of data and analyses that will…