This overview of the Alaska system for test development, scoring, and reporting explored differences and similarities between norm-referenced and standards-based tests. The current Alaska testing program is based on legislation passed in 1997 and 1998, and is designed to meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Legislation. In…

Multiple measures may mean multiple opportunities to show achievement or the use of multiple assessment formats. A third meaning is the use of assessments from different sources, such as augmenting an external, usually commercial assessment with a state's own assessment. The first two meanings of multiple assessments have been explored…

This study was designed to contribute to the validity evidence for the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) by providing additional descriptive data about the performance standards in reading and mathematics at grades 4, 7, and 10. After the realignment of norm-referenced tests, large numbers of students taking the WASL had…

This paper examines the different strategies used to argue for and against testing of English Language Learners (ELL) in California. The study arose from protests directed at a California law requiring that a norm-referenced achievement test be used to assess school children on their mastery of basic skills. The paper describes the different uses…

This is a descriptive study of the activities, statistics, and decisions made regarding the re-testing of six inner-city elementary schools, based on results of a norm-referenced achievement test given in the Cincinnati Public School district in April, 1985. Three statistical operations were performed on test data from the Design for School…

Test publishers have promoted their commercially available, norm-referenced achievement tests as viable solutions to assessment challenges faced by states. They argue that their tests are developed professionally, and, therefore, possess sound psychometric properties not often found in state-specific efforts. This study compared judgments from two…

This paper describes the methods used for revising the Cincinnati Mathematics Inventories, a battery of criterion-referenced tests of basic skills used in the Cincinnati Title III program and other city-wide special programs. Each of these tests is designed to cover a half-year of work; items are included to sample skills listed in the Catalog of…

This study was conducted to determine whether norm-referenced test data and Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) data from 1995 and 1999 showed similar gains in reading and mathematics achievement. TAAS data were collected from all students in Texas who were in the accountability subset of scores used for rating schools, approximately…

During the 1985-86 school year, an evaluation plan utilizing standardized norm-referenced test information was initiated within the Wichita Public School System in Kansas. The plan had four identifiable factors: (1) a growth measurement concept; (2) a simplified computation process; (3) a means of integration of growth measurement within user…

The potential use of criterion referenced tests (CRT) and norm referenced tests (NRT) in the same testing program is discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of each are listed, and the best solution, a merging, is proposed. To merge CRTs and NRTs into an overall testing program, meaningful and useful to all levels, consideration must be given…

The effect of a basic competency education program on the achievement of high, average, and low-achieving students was examined for the Alabama Basic Competency Education program (BCE). California Achievement Tests scores in reading, mathematics, and language were examined for 3 years prior to initiation of the BCE program and for 3 years…

To compile information on state and school district standardized testing programs, a survey instrument was designed and sent to 135 members of the National Association of Test Directors (NATD). Seventy responses (52%) were received in time to be included in the compilation. Most participating school districts (n=61, 87%) had a program mandated by…

In discussing the third national assessment of reading and literature, four major points can be made. First, norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced tests ignore serious ethical and measurement problems, namely, we don't know enough about individual differences to do such testing and the outcome, social class tracking, is ethically…

The Value Added Program for assessing undergraduate education at Northeast Missouri State University is described. The program is in its 12th year and has as its driving force a comprehensive student data base that includes measures of individual student performance at the entering freshman level and at the end of the sophomore year, as well as…

In this speech, the president of the National Education Association presents a series of arguments against the development of national educational standards and against the continued use of national, norm-referenced, standardized tests. Eight objections to the use of such tests are noted. Defense of the teaching profession's objections to the…