Why has large-scale standardised testing attracted such a bad press? Why has pedagogic benefit to be derived from test results been downplayed? The paper investigates this question by first surveying the pros and cons of testing in the literature, and goes on to examine educators' responses to standardised, large-scale tests in a sample of low…

In this article, after describing one approach for teaching critical thinking (CT) that was in place at Baker University from 1990 to 2008, the author describes their experience assessing CT using three standardized exams and shows why the choice of a standardized CT test can be problematic and the results misleading. These results can be…

Many postsecondary institutions currently administer standardized tests of general college outcomes; more than a quarter of Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) member institutions do so. Using standardized tests for accountability purposes has been contentious mainly because these tests do not measure every important…

This dissertation is comprised of three essays exploring the performance of students on standardized tests in public schools. Since the passage of the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB) in 2002, public schools have been subject to penalties for poor student achievement. In particular, NCLB requires states to measure reading and math test…

This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of a ninth grade transition program at a suburban high school in Louisiana. Student data were analyzed from two groups of first time freshmen who indicated a need for help in mathematics: one without a transition program and one with a transition program. Academic data included standardized test…

The purpose of the analyses reported in this paper was to compare performance on the GED (General Educational Development) Tests, U.S. edition, across three groups of examinees: (a) graduating high school seniors in the GED Tests U.S. 2001 norm group, (b) GED Tests candidates who took one or more tests in the U.S. in 2002-2004, and (c) GED Tests…

This study examined the effects of mentoring on standardized achievement for African American males in the elementary and middle grades. Mentoring has been deemed effective regarding social development and various academic indicators, but scant empirical data is available regarding the effects of mentoring on standardized testing. Thus,…

The administration of the National Test-Equating Study in Reading is described as part of a symposium on the study. After contacts with each of the State Departments of Education, district and LEA superintendents were asked to consider the participation of randomly selected schools within their jurisdictions. Upon receipt of approval, school…

One-year and overall national trends in the scores of college-bound high school students on the American College Testing Program's (ACT) college entrance examination and on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) are examined, and data on the ACT subtest score trends by sex and race and on the SAT subtest score trends by state are presented. (MSE)

EVALUATION STEPS WERE DEVELOPED FOR THE CURRICULUM CONTINUITY DEMONSTRATION (CCD), A JOINT PROJECT OF THE PITTSBURGH SCHOOLS AND THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH. THE GOAL OF THE PROJECT WAS TO DEVELOP A COORDINATED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM WHICH CONSTITUTES A TRUE CONTINUUM FOR THE STUDENT AS HE PROGRESSES FROM KINDERGARTEN TO COLLEGE. INITIAL EVALUATION…

The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS/S) was the nationally standardized, norm-referenced test selected for the Idaho Statewide Testing Program for 1976-77. It provided basic skills measures in reading, language, mathematics, total battery, reference skills, science and social studies. Students in the 4th, 8th and 11th grades from 51 of…

Raw scores on most standardized educational and psychological assessment instruments acquire meaning only when referenced to a set of norms. Test publishers should clearly describe their norming procedures, including the target population and the sample on which the norms are based. The primary purpose of this report is to illustrate some of the…

This report analyzes the performance of the portion of the graduating class of 1991 from the Houston (Texas) Independent School District (HSID) who took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and related tests associated with the College Board's testing program. In 1991, 3,907 (52%) HISD students took the SAT; 556 (14.2%) of the HISD students who took…

The influence of test wiseness on the performance of 736 high school seniors in British Columbia on provincial school leaving examinations in English, algebra, geography, history, biology, and chemistry was studied. The performance of many students on the multiple-choice sections was spuriously enhanced by test wiseness. (TJH)

The purpose of this paper is (1) to discuss a set of standards that can be used to evaluate potential assessment instruments; and (2) to use these standards to evaluate the American College Testing Program's College Outcomes Measures Program (ACT-COMP) and the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Academic Profile. Using the work of S. Messick (1975,…