To successfully make the transition from school to adult life and the world of work, adolescents and young adults need guidance and encouragement from caring, supportive adults. The best decisions and choices made by transitioning youth are based on sound information including appropriate assessments that focus on the talents, knowledge, skills,…

Performance assessment is a type of educational assessment in which judgments are made about student knowledge and skills based on observation of student behavior or inspection of student products. In dealing with the issue of fairness in performance assessment, educators are confronted with some dilemmas. Assuring equality in performance…

The goal of this mini-curriculum is for students to discover what drinking water really is. Five units are designed to be presented as a lecture and to allow 30 to 40 students to perform every procedure, each testing their own tap water sample. Games are provided in each section to reinforce the concepts presented in each unit. Unit 1 introduces…

The French as a Second Language model tests for beginning levels 1, 2, and 3 were designed to evaluate students' language performance, as outlined in the program of studies for Alberta, Canada, in listening and reading comprehension and oral and written production, communication skills, culture, language and general language knowledge. The tests…

As a service to the community to protect the legal rights of students, this manual is designed to provide the legal information New York state parents and professionals need in order to become more effective educational advocates. It is not intended as a definitive legal resource, but rather as a guide for structuring a legally sound argument to…

Developed by the Assessment/Advisement Center (AAC) at Missouri's Crowder College (CC), this handbook is designed as a model for other community college testing and advisement centers in establishing assessment policies and practices. First, an introduction is provided, describing changes in the role of assessment since the advent of on-line…

The Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is one of the 16 subject-oriented clearinghouses operated by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. In its early years, ERIC was primarily an archive of education literature, but is has evolved into a…

The realities of inappropriate and sometimes unethical testing practices must be confronted to make sure that current assessments are as reliable and effective as possible. While this paper does not attempt to provide practical guidelines for ethical and appropriate testing, it does draw a picture of appropriate and ethical testing practices. All…

It is proposed that business language training be based on results of a "language audit," designed to identify the skill levels required to carry out specific tasks, propose training solutions, and monitor progress. A British organization has established a framework for assessing five levels of language skill in this context. These standards…

This volume contains a set of experimental English language vocabulary tests designed to be used with learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). The tests are graded into 6 levels of difficulty and there are 20 tests at each level. Teachers can use the tests to provide a rough lexical profile of individual students, or to monitor the progress…

State assessment directors and State science supervisors discussed alternative methods for assessing student learning in science at a conference. The conference had two objectives: (1) to increase the knowledge of state science supervisors and assessment directors of recent experience at international, national, and state levels with alternative…

This paper reviews the assessment process as it exists today in the New York City Adult Literacy Initiative (NYCALI), and explores a few changes in direction and in practice currently underway. It highlights the national context of concern surrounding literacy assessment, and summarizes the debate over standardized testing and other forms of…

This paper addresses the evaluation of the testing of writing of foreign languages and compares two evaluation methods: the analytical method and the holistic method. The analytical method focuses on the mechanics of writing where the writer is measured against a set of empirical standards and a composition is dissected for the critical points.…

The test development plan described here is an outgrowth of a 3-year California state project to address the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) placement needs of adult education agencies in the state. The test development plan provides specific directions for the development of operational instruments anchored to the state's standards, and…

Guidelines for the supervisor's role in improving teachers' assessments of their students are offered in this paper. Suggestions for improving formal assessment are provided first, with attention to the various types of formal tests, general test design, and grading procedures. Ways to informally monitor students' learning processes are briefly…