An overview and summary are presented of the implementation of the Connecticut Mastery Test for grade 4. The testing program assesses essential skills in mathematics and language arts including listening, reading, and writing for students in grades 4, 6, and 8. The criterion-referenced mastery test assesses how well each student is performing on…

The 1992-93 school year was the second year of the implementation of the Vermont assessment program. Evaluation of the 1991-92 year yielded mixed results, with some evidence that the assessment program was having a strong impact on instruction, but other indications that the reliability of the portfolio scoring in both writing and mathematics was…

Connecticut is developing a new grade 10 statewide testing program known as the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT). The CAPT reflects the changing nature of standardized assessment by using a variety of assessment formats including performance tasks, open-ended questions, and multiple-choice tests. This paper describes the research that…

A comprehensive overview of the current state of student assessment and a glimpse of the extent of student assessment in New York State (NYS), throughout the nation, and in foreign countries are provided. Background on existing testing programs in NYS and the assessment components of "A New Compact for Learning," a set of proposals from…

The Center for Evaluation Study at the University of California (Los Angeles) conducted the Test Use in Schools study to map the topography of basic-skills achievement testing and achievement test use in public schools across the United States. The survey addressed a nationwide sample of principals and teachers through a successive,…

Intended as a guide for college and secondary school educators involved in establishing institutional policy or providing students with academic counseling, this booklet presents basic information about the wide variety of English composition and literature examinations offered by College Board programs. It begins with a description of the role…

The Oregon State Board of Education initiated the Oregon Statewide Assessment Program in 1973 as a means for gathering data on student performance in the basic skills areas. Tests were administered to 27,086 fourth, seventh and eleventh grade students in 405 schools selected at random in March of 1982. Test results were returned to participating…

Writing tests are part of the mandated statewide proficiency examination in Nevada. The ninth-grade screening test and the eleventh-grade diploma-certifying test require that a student write a paragraph and a business letter, each on an assigned topic and each at an acceptable level of proficiency. Pilot tests, extended discussion, and statistical…

A brief overview of the Diploma Examinations Program conducted by Alberta Education during 1989-90 is provided. All grade 12 students in Alberta are required to write at least one diploma examination, either English 30 or English 33, to receive a high school diploma. The Grade 12 Diploma Examinations Program is intended to develop and maintain…

An overview of educational reforms during the 1980s (1978-88) and their effects is presented for use by policy makers, practitioners, and interested citizens. The first section of this report, called "The Reforms of the 1980s", is based largely on a 50-state survey and a research report, both commissioned by the Educational Testing…

The impacts of the Grade 12 Provincial Examination Program on the educational system in British Columbia and its participants were studied. Beginning with the 1983-84 school year, students in British Columbia have been required to take an end-of-course provincial examination in each academic course they take. The study began with a review of…

Public concern about the effectiveness of education institutions and the accompanying loss of public confidence in the nation's schools has revealed itself in a growing complaint that too many teachers cannot teach. This criticism, while not fully substantiated, has resulted in efforts to establish means for testing teacher competency, seen as one…

The research described in this paper examines the relationship between raters and the training raters receive to apply that rating. The primary concern is maintaining scoring consistency within the context of raters' perceptions. If the criteria for holistic and/or analytic scoring can be recognized as communication based, rather than topic based,…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the Longitudinal Studies Program (LSP) are major survey projects on educational outcomes performed by the Center for Education Statistics. NAEP is a continuing cross-sectional survey of young Americans' skills, knowledge, and attitudes. The LSP studies follow a sample of students as they…

Replication of the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) in Ontario, Canada, is described and assessed. The curriculum and testing program covers numerical methods, geometry, and algebra. Whereas classical studies focused on mean scores of a system's students and on percentages of teachers for opportunity to learn (OTL), SIMS aggregates…