To address the needs and interests of primary stakeholders in a writing program, this article presents a model of "grassroots" assessment that involves instructors from all ranks as well as students in the development, facilitation, and interpretation of assessment results. The authors describe two assessment plans that measured student…

Describes the Philadelphia Public Schools' formative testing program, used to diagnose students' difficulties under mastery learning, especially in mathematics. Discusses in turn the classroom, school, and district aspects of the program and summarizes the program's essential features. A full-page chart outlining aids and hindrances to formative…

A pretest-posttest design for measuring the effects of educational programs uses comparison groups consisting of pupils like those in the treatment group but not getting that particular treatment. Although the design is geared primarily to evaluation of Title I programs in large cities, it should also apply to other situations. The plan for…

This report consists of three sections, the first of which is a discussion of placement testing. It is maintained that the strengths and weaknesses of a tested population cannot be determined by a single composite test--yet, many institutions place students in beginning courses on the basis of such limited information. To assess basic capabilities…

A study evaluated the effectiveness of pretesting infantry soldiers scheduled to take written Skill Qualification Tests (SQT) in order to determine their training needs prior to official testing. During the study, researchers developed and field-tested a pretest for the SQT that was based on the 11B1 Infantryman Soldier's Manual and the 1980 SQT…

To improve Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) participant assessment systems in Virginia, a project identified assessment systems and techniques/tools used by prime sponsors and developed an assessment model. It also identified key personnel of educational institutions in the prime sponsor area. A mail survey was followed by on-site…

A computer simulation procedure was developed to reproduce the overall pattern of results obtained in the Educational Testing Service Growth Study. Then simulated data for seven sets of 10,000 to 15,000 cases were analyzed, and findings compared on the basis of correlations between estimated and true growth scores. Findings showed that growth was…

After outlining the advantages of individualizing instruction through the use of learning laboratories, this book describes the physical facilities needed in a laboratory and stresses the crucial role of the laboratory coordinator, who must be a counselor, test administrator, tutor or teacher, supervisor, bookkeeper, and curriculum specialist. A…

This Technical Report provides descriptions and summary data that assist measurement specialists in assessing the procedures used in developing New Jersey's High School Proficiency Test (HSPT), the technical qualities of the tests, and the statewide results obtained from its use. The data summarized in this report were collected during the various…

Two different control groups were used to evaluate the use of pre- and post-test examination questions presented in the format of a Navy training film. The control group was given a paper-and-pencil pre- and post-test while the experimental group received the pre- and post-test questions within the context and format of the film. While no…

In developing countries, for the most part, traditional methods of selecting students for secondary schools, technical and vocational institutions, teacher training colleges, and universities are unable to ensure that the most capable applicants receive the limited opportunities available. To remedy this situation, the author has assembled and…

Before an item bank is constructed, several curriculum and testing considerations should be addressed. Such issues include the number of students enrolled in the selected subject area; number of desired objectives and items per objective; method of storing the items; and how and when to train how many teachers in item writing. The following steps…

This paper contains a comparison of descriptive information based on analyses of pilot and live administrations of the Alabama High School Graduation Examination (AHSGE). The test is composed of three subject tests: Reading, Mathematics, and Language. The study was intended to validate the test development procedure by comparing difficulty levels…

This paper presents the designs underlying an IPI approach to ninth grade science implemented in the Jamesville-DeWitt schools in New York State. Briefly described are the generalizable instructional model, evaluation systems for assessing individual performance and the effectiveness of the instructional program and the support systems which make…