This article reviews four interrelated approaches to reducing an inequitable gap in cognitive and educational test scores between individuals of a dominant culture and individuals of other cultures or subcultures. These approaches include (a) use of broader measures, (b) performance- and project-based assessments, (c) direct measurement of…

Authentic assessment is a growing alternative to conventional testing. This research-to-practice article describes a framework for implementing authentic assessment. The R-E-A-L framework shows how roles, equipment, assessment tools, and location can be incorporated into early childhood practices.

The inclusion of young children with disabilities has remained a function of the Head Start program since its inception in the 1960s when the United States Congress mandated that children with disabilities comprise 10% of the Head Start enrollment (Zigler & Styfco, 2000). Standardized, norm-referenced tests used to identify children with…

Responds to letters to the editor regarding comments on semantics, psychometrics, and assessment reform regarding authentic assessment of student academic achievements. Suggests that psychometric concerns need to be addressed. (MMU)

Discusses authentic assessment of student performance as it relates to academic improvement and educational reform. Points out that there is too much testing of basic knowledge and skills out of context, and too little teaching of complex concepts. (MMU)

The first edition of this book was written to give information about testing to people whose work gave them access to test results, but whose training included little or nothing about the use and interpretation of tests. Later editions have been intended for a broader audience as the need for understanding what test scores really mean has…

Ensuring that language tests for adult English language learners are appropriate, valid, and reliable is a challenge. Performance-based assessments are complex to develop and implement. Yet, because the focus of assessment, both in the National Reporting System for Adult Education (NRS) descriptors and in the Department of Education's definition…

This book is a practical guide for assessing the intended learning outcomes of classroom instruction. It is based on the premise that assessment of student achievement plays a vital role in instruction and that the main goal of assessment is to improve learning. The new title of this sixth edition reflects a shift from major concern with classroom…

Discusses the movement toward authentic assessment, also called direct or performance assessment, as an alternative to multiple-choice, standardized, norm-referenced testing. Authentic testing involves assessment tasks that are real instances of extended criterion performances rather than proxies of actual learning goals. Questions use of…

"Educational Measurement" has been the bible in its field since the first edition was published by ACE in 1951. The importance of this fourth edition of "Educational Measurement" is to extensively update and extend the topics treated in the previous three editions. As such, the fourth edition documents progress in the field and…