In 1986 the Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation directing the Legislative Research Commission to appoint a special subcommittee, the Special Subcommittee on Essential Skills Testing, to study the Kentucky Essential Skills Testing Program (KEST) and to make recommendations concerning the program. This report presents the findings and…

This publication provides a reference for educators and others interested in conducting comparative studies relative to North Carolina tests. It includes norms, tables, and other statistical information for all state-developed tests (state-mandated and local-option tests for which baseline data are available) that were administered during the…

The Cherry Creek School district (Englewood, Colorado) is a growing district of 37,000 students in the Denver area. The 1988 Colorado State School Finance Act required district-set proficiencies (standards), and forced agreement on a set of values for student knowledge and skills. State-adopted standards added additional requirements for the…

Clear communication with parents about educational reform issues and the implementation of standards is essential. This publication presents ideas for state leaders on how better to inform parents about statewide assessments and how to report the results of these assessments to parents so that the results are more meaningful. The first section…

As part of a major effort to raise student achievement, Colorado schools have been putting into place rigorous academic content standards that spell out the skills and knowledge students should acquire in core subject areas. This guide contains information about part of this effort, the new Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP), to help…

The new Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) was developed to provide a measurement of how well students and schools are meeting Colorado's academic content standards. The CSAP tests are not norm-referenced showing how much a student has learned in comparison with other students. Instead, they are based on the state's content standards.…

The School-Based Management and Accountability Program, also known as the "ABCs of Public Education," or just "the ABCs," is the statewide school-based accountability program for public schools in North Carolina. This document reports the results of the 1997-98 ABCs, in the second year of the implementation of the ABCs in…

Every year approximately 1,300 first-year students at the Rochester Institute of Technology complete a 50-minute placement essay during summer and fall orientations. The essays are scored holistically, and the students are placed into one of three levels of an English composition course. At the end of the 10-week quarter of instruction, students…

The focus of this 2-day hearing was on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Witnesses testified about the importance of the NAEP as a national assessment tool and the changes that the Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education (SESVE) might consider for the future. On March 13, the following persons…

This technical report describes the development of the College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), an instrument designed to measure Florida college students' achievement of the computation and communication skills expected by the completion of their sophomore year. Section I covers CLAST's background and purpose, the requirement that all students…

The 8th Grade Test (1984) of the Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress includes 22 reading items, 39 geometry items, 41 science items, a 27-item student questionnaire regarding science opinions, and 46 mathematics items. The test booklet only is included here. (PN)

At the beginning of the 1981-82 school year, the Board of Education of the Portland (OR) Public Schools established a system-wide achievement goal of improved learning in all areas of the curriculum including the basic skills. This report describes the gains made during the first year of implementation of that new achievement policy. Portland's…

This paper discusses new psychometric analyses that improve capabilities for relating performance on achievement test items to instruction received by examinees. The modeling discussion is closely tied to data for eighth graders in the United States provided by the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS), comprising not only responses to a…

Although it is being taken in greater numbers and by increasingly younger people, the General Education Development (GED) test is viewed skeptically by the military, college admission officials, and some employers. The public perception of the GED tends to give it second-class status compared to a high school diploma. However, studies of GED…

Issues associated with the lack of statistical skills among educational and psychological researchers are discussed. Issues are associated with accreditation standards, faculty positions for psychometric specialists, measurement curricula, and licensing organizations. The Test User Qualification Working Group has produced a model test user…