The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has a partnership with NWEA for the development of the 2024 Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests. Teachers from across the State work with NYSED in a variety of activities to ensure the validity and reliability of the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP). The 2024 Grades 6 and 7 English Language…

This article considers the politics of adoption of a testing regime in South Africa. While the broad features of this regime are similar to those in developed countries, there are features specific to the South African context. These emerge from a combination of external and internal pressures. External pressures derive from international testing…

This paper explores how mandated literacy assessment is reorganising teachers' work in the context of Australia's National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy, which was implemented in 2008. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are tested annually, with school results publicly available. The wider policy context and the emergence of different…

Using personal narratives and research on teacher "communities of practice," the authors outline a proactive response to high-stakes testing policies that places teacher learning at its center. Although research on the effects of these policies is mixed, the authors are troubled by the ways in which the policies have been used to strip teachers of…

Tests require a special kind of savvy, a kind of critical thinking and knowledge application that is not always a part of classroom reading experiences. Who better to teach you how to prepare your students for reading tests than someone who has written them? Charles Fuhrken has spent years working with several major testing companies and…

This mixed-methods case study focuses on the third through fifth grade classrooms at a public elementary school in a Midwestern urban school district where the Northwest Evaluation Association's (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment is being implemented. According to the school district, the goals of these tests are: to show…

What is the best use for tests? Testing should provide insight and information to educators and students. The primary purpose of testing is to inform teaching and learning. Yet, for too many schools, testing has been perverted to accommodate only measurement. Lesson plans are built around helping students pass the tests. In many instances, schools…

Describes structure and operation of GCE Ordinary and Advanced Level examining boards. (RM)

ACT maintains that monitoring academic strengths and weaknesses through the effective use of results from standardized tests can promote learning and intellectual growth. When schools use achievement test scores to guide curriculum choices and to provide feedback to students, opportunities for learning increase. The ACT Educational Planning and…

This paper offers facts and figures on Utah's education status for the school year 2010-2011. This paper contains the following: (1) Core CRT Language Arts Testing, 2010; (2) Core CRT Mathematics Testing, 2010; (3) 2010 Public Education General Fund--Funding by Source and Expenditures by Function; (4) 2009-10 Public School Enrollment Demographics;…

This paper offers facts and figures on Utah's education status for the school year 2011-2012. This paper contains the following: (1) Core CRT Language Arts Testing, 2011; (2) Core CRT Mathematics Testing, 2011; (3) 2011 Public Education General Fund--Funding by Source and Expenditures by Function; (4) 2010-11 Public School Enrollment Demographics;…

The purpose of this handbook is to provide information and guidelines for using data from standardized tests. The handbook consists of six sections: (1) explains the rationale for district-wide testing; (2) discusses a district testing program; (3) presents guidelines for testing which describes procedures for administering standardized tests; (4)…

The implementation of a district-wide testing program requires careful consideration of credibility issues. These issues have been frequently overlooked or treated casually by test developers and users alike. It is well enough to study the reliability and validity issues involved when selecting instrumentation. It is also necessary to identify…

Several test publishers respond to a charge of racism in testing, made by Robert L. Williams in the previous edition of this journal. Responding are: George Bennett of The Psychological Corporation, John Sommer of Houghton-Mifflin, Leo A. Munday of the American College Testing Program, Samuel Messick and Scarvia Anderson of the Educational Testing…

For this report, CEEP staff collected information on testing timelines, subjects, grade configurations, names, and SEA testing contacts. As with the 2003 report, discussion in this report is limited to the testing components of state assessment programs, such as Indiana's ISTEP+ program, used for compliance purposes with state and federal…