Recent years have produced a surge in interest in improving state assessment programs. Many states are designing new assessments. Much of this innovation is aimed at addressing longstanding areas of unhappiness with typical domain-sampled, end-of-year state assessments: States want to streamline assessment activities, enhance the instructional…

With the focus on how a sample of 25 Arab ESL learners respond to the TOEFL-iBT reading tasks, this study aimed to find out what strategies respondents tend to use, investigate if there are differences between high- and low-scorers in strategy use, and determine aspects of effective strategy use among respondents. Data were collected using a…

Items on test score scales located at and below the Proficient cut score define the content area knowledge and skills required to achieve proficiency. Alternately, examinees who perform at the Proficient level on a test can be expected to be able to demonstrate that they have mastered most of the knowledge and skills represented by the items at…

The purpose of this study was to compare differences in methods of testing for two undergraduate online courses to determine the effect of alternate test formats in relation to participant grades. Specific purposes of this study were to determine whether a difference existed in student test scores between the control and treatment groups and…

The paper gives an overview of multidimensional adaptive testing (MAT) and evaluates its applicability in educational and psychological testing. The approach of Segall (1996) is described as a general framework for MAT. The main advantage of MAT is its capability to increase measurement efficiency. In simulation studies conceptualizing situations…

This report describes results from field-testing of POWERSOURCE[C] formative assessment alongside professional development and instructional resources. The researchers at the National Center for Research, on Evaluation, Standards, & Student Testing (CRESST) employed a randomized, controlled design to address the following question: Does the…

Distance Education has globally become one of the important solutions for increasing admission into the universities, decongesting campuses and efficient utilization of time and space. To ensure the sustainability of the programmes' noble objectives calls for periodic re-evaluation of its modus operandi including the assessment of the perception…

Background: National curriculum assessment (NCA) in England has been in place for nearly 20 years. It has its origins in a political desire to regulate education, holding schools accountable. However, its form and nature also reflect educational and curriculum concerns and technical assessment issues. Purpose: The aim of the article is to provide…

This analysis of the role of testing in educational programs and services maintains that the connection between tests and instruction is best made integrally through an understanding of the design of learning tasks rather than through linkage. The context for, use of, and limitations of task structures are described. (Author/CM)

Addresses trends in test development and interpretation over the past 10 years and explores test and inventory usage in counseling centers in three articles. Reactions, in two articles, address specific issues raised and overall trends. (RC)

Within an evidentiary framework for operationally defining academic English language proficiency (AELP), linguistic analyses of standards, classroom discourse, and textbooks have led to specifications for assessment of AELP. The test development process described here is novel due to the emphasis on using linguistic profiles to inform the …

The National Accessible Reading Assessment Projects (NARAP) is a collaboration of two projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education to conduct research and development on accessible reading assessments for students with disabilities that affect reading. The goal of these projects is to produce research findings and assessment techniques that…

The National Accessible Reading Assessment Projects (NARAP) is a collaborative effort that is conducting research to make large-scale assessments of reading proficiency more accessible for students who have disabilities that affect reading. There are two projects that comprise the NARAP partnership, Designing Accessible Reading Assessments (DARA)…

In July 2001, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) agreed to the development of assessment instruments and key performance measures for reporting on student skills, knowledge and understandings in primary science. It directed the newly established Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce…