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…

Media reports have recently given significant attention to the opt-out movement, an organized effort to refuse to take standardized tests. Although the narrative often told in early press accounts was of a viral grass-roots effort led by parents who object to state-mandated testing, the reality has turned out to be more complicated. Through a…

This article reviews the "Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition" (WIAT-III), a newly updated individual measure of academic achievement for students in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 (age 4 years, 0 months to 19 years, 11 months). Suitable for use in educational, clinical, and research settings, the stated purposes of the WIAT-III…

The equating process links scores from different editions of the same test. For testing programs that build nearly parallel forms to the same explicit content and statistical specifications and administer forms under the same conditions, the linkings between the forms are expected to be equatings. Score equity assessment (SEA) provides a useful…

Just as comprehension strategies have helped millions of students learn to read like proficient readers, they can also help students think like effective test-takers. The authors show how students can use background knowledge, mental images, synthesizing, monitoring, inferring, questioning, and determining of importance to understand the genre of…

There are many kinds of classroom assessment--from informal observation of students to more formal exams and standardized tests. Two categories have been identified--formative assessments and summative assessments. Formative assessments are used by teachers to provide feedback to students and to guide improvement of instruction. For example, if a…

This article is a description of the process of constructing an assessment of written and oral language for pre-service teachers. This assessment was used prior to their formal admission into the teacher education programme. The rationale for this evaluation is presented along with the actual processes involved. Finally, comparisons are made…

Describes the controversy following the pioneering bill in New York that is to allow standardized admissions tests to be scrutinized by the public. The position of the Educational Testing Service in the issue is presented. (SA)

Recommendations of an Ad Hoc Advisory Committee relating to standardized testing in a state educational system are presented. The paper first discusses the concepts of measurement, evaluation, and standardized testing. Then follows discussions of Test Development, Qualifications of Test Users, General Use of Tests, The Use of Standardized Tests…

Educators' confusion over uses of standardized tests is akin to mistaking pulse rate for the total effect of a health regimen. Using authentic standards and tests to judge intellectual ability is labor-intensive and time-consuming. What students need is a test with more sophisticated criteria for judging performance. Includes 37 references. (MLH)

Standardized science achievement tests for the elementary school are almost uniformly poor in quality; any quick-answer, paper-and-pencil science test that has consequences for the child or the school is likely to be irrelevant and perhaps harmful to those activities most likely to interest children in science. (Author/IRT)

This report asserts that rapid changes in many areas, such as technology and communications, marked the 20th century, the first century of ability testing. Predictions about the second century of testing seem difficult in such a context. Yet, looking back to the turn of the last century, E. Kirkpatrick (1900) in his American Psychological…

Discusses the value of standardized tests in providing useful measurement of career education programs and presents advantages of standardized over locally prepared tests in many instances. Includes test selection consideration and some resources for test selection. (MF)

Supports government policy of encouraging examination reform in universities in India through the setting up of Question Banks which would contain tested examination questions and statistical information on their validity and reliability. Suggests guidelines for development and use of the question banks by organizations and universities. (JT)

The implications of "A Nation at Risk" for the field of measurement are examined. These are a need for more frequent and varied tests; responsibility for eliminating measurement problems; and a resurgence of standardized testing at the high school level. The need for measures of teaching quality will increase. (DWH)