The State of New Jersey has proposed moving its competency test of basic skills from the 9th to the 11th grade, in order to allow for more content learning, more maturity, and more test-taking skills on the part of students. Since vocational students are more likely than other students to score low on the basic skills competency test, having the…

The implementation of any competency testing program must take into consideration the due process clause and the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Examples of the violation of the due process clause would be to implement a testing program without adequate notice or to cover material not taught. Instructional validity must be…

This conference report provides a summary of the activities and outcomes of the second Student Success Strategies Conference, which sought to further facilitate the development of community college action plans in the areas of access, assessment, and intervention in ensuring student success. Following introductory information on the conference, an…

Described in this paper is a proposal concerning the responsibility of the California community colleges in providing remediation services and programs. The first part of the paper concerns the proposal itself. After a brief statement of the major issues under consideration, the conditions under which student success can be ensured in open access…

The document is part of the final report on Project STEEL (Special Teacher Education and Evaluation Laboratory) intended to extend the utilization of technology in the training of preservice special education teachers. This volume focuses on the first of four project objectives, the development and implementation of a microcomputer-based…

Increased emphasis on public school accountability has resulted in several states including a science component in their elementary and middle school testing program. This component often includes items designed to measure process skill ability. The purpose of this study was to examine the performance of high school students on four types of…

This paper presents an overview of recent psychological research relevant to the assessment and instruction of culturally and linguistically different students. First, general research by cross-cultural psychologists is described, focusing on the observation that types of thinking and learning behavior are influenced by social organization and…

A curriculum guide is presented for three sequential courses in Latin at the high school level in the Province of Alberta. The guide includes the following: outlines of goals and objectives, the rationale for including Latin in a high school program, specific minimum expectations at the end of the third course for each language skill (listening,…

A curriculum guide is presented for three sequential courses in Italian at the senior high school level in the Province of Alberta. The guide includes the following: outlines of goals and objectives, the rationale for the inclusion of Italian in a high school program, specific minimum expectations at the end of the third course for each language…

This book describes an instructional model that identifies the major variables in the teaching-learning process to demonstrate how teachers can apply knowledge of educational psychology in the classroom. Following an intorductory chapter on the teacher or decision maker, the first section contains four chapters dealing with development and…

Extended caution indices (ECI) specify the degree of confidence that can be placed in an individual's test score by analyzing patterns of item response. Among the most promising of such indices are the standardized ECIs. Contrary to the literature, several instances were found, in a previous study, of nonnormal distributions of ECIs with samples…

Materials to be used in workshops to teach language teacher trainees the communicative approach to language testing are presented. The materials were developed from a 1985 Council of Europe workshop held in York, England. They include preliminary notes for workshop organizers, an introductory "ice-breaker" activity, and six content…

Curriculum alignment means determining precisely what is intended to be taught, teaching that specifically, and measuring specifically what was taught. This paper contends that the alignment of objectives, actual teaching, and the means and content of testing are essential to effective schooling. The logical arguments of three authorities--Wilbur…

This document describes the WORDS software, a computer program designed to evaluate a reading disabled student's sight word vocabulary using an Apple II microcomputer. A brief discussion of various methods of addressing reading difficulties precedes a detailed description of the WORDS program and its use. This description covers: (1) the…

New legislation in 1972 shifted the emphasis of the California Assessment Program (CAP) from traditional every pupil achievement testing to a more efficient multiple-matrix testing design, under which a broad spectrum of skills could be surveyed without undue expenditure of educational resources. Scale score reporting was introduced to the grade 6…