This review critiques the highly-praised and influential 2001 study, "Getting Tough? The Impact of High School Graduation Exams," which concluded that "minimum competency," or high school "graduation exams," had no effect on student achievement. The review compares the test classifications of "Getting…

Recently, educational researchers and practitioners have turned to value-added models to evaluate teacher performance. Although value-added estimates depend on the assessment used to measure student achievement, the importance of outcome selection has received scant attention in the literature. Using data from a large, urban school district, I…

This document contains five papers describing the customization of the achievement testing program for Palm Beach County (Florida) Schools. They are as follows: "Customized Achievement Testing Programs" (S. Jean Jolly); "Using the Rasch Model to Develop Curriculum-Referenced Norms" (R. Robert Rentz); "Matching Standardized…

The extent to which national performance on an achievement test battery changed over a 4-year period was studied, and the comparative performance of students in school districts taking the test series for the first time was compared with that of students in districts that had used the battery at least once in one or more grades. The seventh…

Considered are limits of accuracy in the frequent administration of standardized achievement tests for deaf students. (Author/CL)

This research, conducted for California State Department of Education, is one component of a feasibility study focusing on ways to make the testing process more efficient by application of multi-purpose tests (MPT). MPT are designed, administered and scored to serve more than one purpose and to consolidate and unify testing programs as a partial…

The Unified Science and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES) Program was designed to teach students complex problem-solving skills. This paper reports the effects of USMES on basic skills, explains the effects, comments on difficulties in data collection, and recommends data-gathering that should complement or replace standard basic skills…

American school officials almost invariably compare local and national achievement through one of the following norm-referenced tests: (1) the California Achievement Test; (2) the Stanford Achievement Test; (3) the Metropolitan Achievement Test; (4) the Science Research Associates Test; (5) the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills; and (6) the Iowa…

A study of 33 elementary/middle school deaf children correlated Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised Performance Intelligence Quotients (IQs) with Stanford Achievement Test-Hearing Impaired Edition (SAT-HI) grade equivalents and age-based percentiles. A second study of 64 children correlated nonverbal IQs from many tests with SAT-HI…

As a preliminary step in customizing the Stanford Achievement Test, a study was made to compare the test items at each level with the curriculum objectives of a Florida school district, classifying them as either matching, above or below grade level, or unmatching. Results are shown in table form. (TE)

Scores from the Stanford Achievement Tests administered to 50,000 students in Palm Beach County, Florida, were studied in order to determine whether the speeded nature of the reading comprehension subtest was related to inconsistencies in the score profiles. Specifically, the probable effect of random guessing was examined. Reading scores were…

The study reported in this paper examined whether a disproportionate number of boys and girls in a given grade level at various schools might have an inequitable effect on the mean achievement test scores of those schools. The student population of the Palm Beach County Schools, Florida, reflecting a cross-section of socio-economic backgrounds,…

The effectiveness of Mississippi's Assistant Teacher Program (ATP) was evaluated after its third year of operation, determining: (1) whether first graders who were exposed to teachers and assistant teachers who had been in ATP for three years continued to make progress in academic achievement; (2) the effectiveness of ATP in fostering achievement…

The potential of a cognitive model task analysis scheme (CMS) that specifies features of test problems shown by research to affect performance is explored. CMS describes the general skill area and the generic task or problem type. It elaborates features of the problem situation and required responses found by research to influence performance.…