Discusses some of the challenges presented by standards-based reform, problems in designing accountability policies that serve learning, creation of fair and equitable accountability systems, standards-based initiatives that serve teaching and learning, and support for teachers and high-quality teaching. (Contains 22 references.) (PKP)

Reports a study gauging the average oral proficiency as measured by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) of college students (n=20) studying German at the end of their fourth semester. Discussion centers on reasonable expectations for high school graduation and for college language…

Describes outcomes of a national investigation in the United Kingdom into linguistic characteristics of writing in GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) English examination. Argues that greater precision in describing writing will promote better teaching and learning. (NH)

Examines the theoretical and practical issues of exit-control testing, and gives some practical suggestions about possible means of implementing such controls. Delineates the complexity of issues involved in implementing exit standard controls and proposes guidelines for implementation. (Author/VWL)

Determines what effect tonal-durational manipulations have on listeners' response to three specific categorical decision-types: (1) patterns are the same; (2) pattern K is a derivation of P; and (3) pattern K is distinctly different from P. Finds that item-pair 1 was identified as "same" whereas item-pairs 18-20 were identified as "distinctly…

This study examined practice effects and list differences on a test of central auditory processing, the Synthetic Sentence Identification (SSI) test, with an ipsilateral competing message in 30 young and 20 elderly participants. Results indicated older adults required substantially more practice. Significant list differences were also found.…

Examined the development of the word knowledge of two groups of advanced learners of French as a second language by means of a slightly revised version of a particular test format. Studied the type of distractor most suited to the participants, distinguished the role of three types of associations, and linked qualitative aspects of word knowledge…

Discusses approaches to the standardized assessment of content knowledge for English language learners (ELLS), including testing in the students' first language, the use of test accommodations, and measuring growth in English as an alternative for accountability until student control of English is sufficient to assure validity of test scores.…

Accountability has become synonymous with standardized testing in many Western countries such as Canada, the United States, Great Britain and New Zealand. Schools and districts are increasingly ranked based on their students' performance on standardized tests. Unfortunately, standardized testing measures possess a number of limitations that…

Whilst there is evidence of significant investment in policy-led initiatives to raise attainment in schools, there is rather less evidence of the positive impact of such initiatives. In this paper we explore stakeholder views of recent initiatives in assessment in Scotland in an attempt to discern the relationships between assessment policy,…

Students received a personalized or nonpersonalized version of a narrated animation explaining how the human respiratory system works. The narration for the nonpersonalized version was in formal style, whereas the narration for the personalized version was in conversational style in which "the" was changed to "your" in 12 places. In 3 experiments,…

Hispanic children with (n=148) and without (n=148) limited English proficiency were given the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT; J. A. Naglieri. 1997a) and the Stanford Achievement Test-9th edition (SAT-9: 1995). The groups were selected from the NNAT standardization sample (N=22.620) and matched on geographic region, gender, socioeconomic…

Undergraduates completed a questionnaire after using the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), a commercially available answer form for multiple-choice (MC) testing that can be used easily and conveniently with large classes. This simple new technique for MC testing provides immediate feedback for each item in an answer-until-correct…

Research indicates that both home literacy activities and direct instruction of reading skills promote reading development. The current study investigates how parent-led direct teaching activities impact emergent literacy. Preschool children (n = 47) were administered subtests from the Test of Early Reading Ability-3 and the Kaufman Survey of…

States and districts are going to get more breathing room to meet the federal mandate that teachers be "highly qualified," but extending the deadline, teacher-quality advocates say, could ultimately bring more pressure on school officials to make progress. That's because the one-year reprieve dangled in late October 2005 by federal…