Guidance services must be concerned with helping students understand themselves and their environments. Testing cannot be an isolated strategy but a tool that is at the disposal of a counselor to help students cope with the decisions of each developmental stage. (Author)

Inquiry and lecture/lab methods of instruction yield different results in conceptual and problem-solving tests, while no difference exists in factual tests. The author recommends that the inquiry method of teaching be refined so that it can become a practical classroom instructional strategy. (CT)

Describes the formal oral and written exams taken by high school seniors in Hungary, the taking of the exams, and grading. (SR)

Examined a scoring anomaly that became apparent in a state-mandated writing assessment. Results for 3,660 essays by sixth graders show that using a spiral model for training raters and scoring papers results in higher mean ratings than does using a sequential model for training and scoring. Findings demonstrate the importance of making decisions…

Reports on the effort by the National Teacher Examination to set standards in the field of speech communication. Describes the way in which the examination is put together and discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses of such a method. (KEH)

Develops and evaluates the linkage of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to the mathematics scale of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The accuracy of the proficiency distribution estimated from the projection was close to the accuracy of the distribution estimated from the large scale assessment. (SLD)

Discusses the religious affiliations of primary schools in Trinidad and Tobago, where 75 percent of primary schools are denominational. Considers effects of the Common Entrance Examination on denominational intakes and government influence in denominational primary school education in terms of policy direction, financial control, and the role of…

Evaluated the effect of the League of Professional Schools, a democratic reform in Georgia, using performance measures from the state's educational performance measurement system. Performance of League schools was positive relative to several performance standards, but it was not possible to demonstrate that the League was a necessary component of…

The phasing out of the Teacher Performance Assessment Instrument (TPAI) in Georgia is described, with particular attention to litigation involving a teacher who lost her certificate after failing the TPAI. Other reasons for phasing out the TPAI are discussed. (SLD)

Presents case studies of four exemplary schools as they worked to meet the demands of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) and the assessment system, the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System. Finds that the ways schools met the challenges were unique to each site, but outlines aspect common to teachers in all four sites. (SLD)

Academic advisors can use materials produced by the American College Testing Program to help undecided advisees explore career options. Materials include the College Report, World-of-Work Map, lists of career families, posters, and other resources, and they can be used in conjunction with sources like the Occupational Outlook Handbook to assist in…

Discusses the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Emphasizes the differences in students' everyday lives in different nations and describes how these differences can affect mathematics achievement. (ASK)

Describes Nebraska's School-based, Teacher-led Accountability and Reporting System, a statewide accountability program that allows local control of assessment methods. Explains the process of developing teacher-designed assessments in business education, including examples of rubrics and alignment of curriculum with content standards. (SK)

Two studies of school counselors' perceptions of the impact of the North Carolina ABC (high-stakes) testing program are reported in this article. (For ease of interpretation, percentages were rounded to the nearest whole number in both studies.) One hundred forty-one counselors who attended their state association's professional conference…

Analyzed a 4-year data set from the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, the state's required high school test, using effect size as the measure of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Findings show that meeting AYP will be a problem of defining the standard as yearly score fluctuations occur. (SLD)