The tests we use to evaluate student achievement may well be sound measures of what students know, but they are faulty indicators at best of how well they have been taught. A remedy to this this situation of judging teachers by the performance of their students on high-stakes tests may be in hand already. We should look to the methods successfully…

In the present offering we challenge the presumption that the educational testing of students provides objective information about such students. This presumption largely rests on an empiricist account of science. In light of mounting criticism, however, empiricist foundationalism has given way to a social epistemology. From this standpoint,…

The use of standardized tests for outcome assessment has grown dramatically in recent years. Two driving factors have been the No Child Left Behind legislation, and the increase in outcome assessment measures by accrediting agencies such as AACSB, the international accrediting body for business schools. Despite the growth in usage, little effort…

"Linking" is a term given to a general class of procedures by which one represents scores X on one test or measure in terms of scores Y on another test or measure. A recent taxonomy by Holland and Dorans (2006; Holland, 2007) organizes the various types of links into three broad categories: prediction, scale aligning, and equating. In…

Newton's article (2010) makes three main contributions to the literature. First, it is transatlantic, bringing together literatures that have been dealing with similar problems, using sometimes different methods and certainly with distinctive educational, cultural perspectives. He points out that neither of these literatures has all of the…

Comprehensive academic achievement tests are routinely used by school psychologists in psycho-educational assessment batteries to identify learning disabled students. A variety of assessment measures are used across age groups to determine if a discrepancy exists between academic achievement and intellectual functioning; however, among the most…

This article invokes a literal image of test givers as measurement devices and explores the psychometric properties of these test administrator instruments. Concurrent and content validation and test-retest and parallel-forms validity are explored. (SLD)

Although agreeing that the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) has an important purpose, the author questions some perceived weaknesses: test validity; medical model measures; sociocultural scales; estimated learning potential (ELP); and the incompleteness of SOMPA manauls for use in evaluating the system. (See also TM 504 174).…

This paper discusses some of the problems posed by external testing, including the social and racial complexities and the serious intellectual issues raised by the nature of a "standardized" examination. It is argued that these and other problems are likely to intensify to an unprecedented degree during the next several years as a result of…

Suggests that the idea of testing be given up, along with the measurement of reading and the idea of reading progress. (AM)

Arguing that most standardized tests are biased against minorities, especially black Americans, several alternatives and guidelines are suggested to alter the present unfair administration, interpretation, and testing process. (EH)

This paper presents the purpose, format, topics of seminar sessions, and participant recommendations of a conference on educational testing processes and their relation to blacks. The conference was held to familiarize participants with research data demonstrating the fallacies and inconsistencies inherent in the testing process as it relates to…

A committee was charged to study the strengths and weaknesses of the AAHPER Youth Fitness Test and to prepare a position paper that would provide sound theory for the test's possible revision. (MM)