Traditional tests fall into two categories, both of which have several advantages and disadvantages that need to be considered when determining the type of test to use. Constructed-response tests, such as essay tests, ask students to construct their own responses. Thus, students are required not only to recall but to organize and often apply…

A conceptual framework is provided for generating assessment tasks that provide an instructor with a richer description of student reasoning/thinking than is possible by simply giving students problems to solve. The application of this framework is illustrated with material from introductory statistics courses which focus on: (1) sampling; (2)…

The International Personnel Management Association Assessment Council (IPMAAC) focuses on improving public personnel assessment in such fields as selection and performance evaluation. Author-generated summaries/outlines of papers presented at the IPMAAC's 1983 conference are provided. The presidential address is "Is There a Future for Test…

Schools that are concerned with evaluating their programs need more than just the average scaled assessment scores from standardized tests. To help schools, the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program produces school and district reports that contain the stories behind the averages. These reports describe the kind of students who took the…

Five years of state test results for Pennsylvania are examined, focusing on differences among elementary schools in which a majority of students do not master basic learning skills. Data are provided for 1,505 elementary schools in about 500 districts. The largest learning problems occur in about 10% of the schools; these schools have been…

The question of whether tests can be both curriculum-neutral and effective means of monitoring and motivating educational practice is discussed. Educational reform and testing are intimately linked, as tests are widely viewed as a means of educational improvement. Tests/assessments influence educator behavior by stimulating them to assure that…

Writing teachers and educators can add to information from large-scale testing and teachers can strengthen classroom assessment by creating a tight fit between large-scale testing and classroom assessment. Across the years, large-scale testing programs have struggled with a difficult problem: how to evaluate student writing reliably and…

Treatment of some issues in a new Dutch plan for foreign language instruction is compared to treatment of similar issues in the United States. The Dutch plan assumes that centralized, national planning is essential, with the various segments of the foreign language instructional system being assigned interlocking roles and responsibilities.…

This volume contains 11 selected papers from the first Mokakit conference on Indian education in Canada. Mokakit, a Blackfoot word meaning "to strive for wisdom," was selected as the name of the sponsoring organization, which promotes the participation of Indians at all levels of educational research. Papers include: (1) "Locally…

Amish children are at a disadvantage in the rural public school because of their unique traditional upbringing and multilingual society. One of the greatest areas of risk is language arts. This document provides resources and instructional tips for teachers teaching writing to Amish children in rural elementary schools. The Amish are a linguistic,…

The way in which the partial credit model is being used in one large education system to analyze performance on standard assessment tasks undertaken by all students in their final year of high school is described. The assessment tasks include investigative projects, laboratory tasks, worked problems, drawings and studio work, essays, and…

It is increasingly recognized, following the lead of J. J. Cannell, that actual gains in educational achievement may be much more modest than dramatic gains reported by many state assessments and many test publishers. An overview is presented of explanations of spurious test score gains. Focus is on determining how test-curriculum alignment and…

Assessment in the National Curriculum in England and Wales is an example of a different model. The report of the government-appointed working group on assessment, Task Group on Assessment and Testing (1988), states that assessment: (1) is an integral part of both teaching and learning; (2) should not determine what is to be taught and learned; and…

Results of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) battery trials in Australia are reported. The IELTS tests of productive language skills use direct assessment strategies and subjective scoring according to detailed guidelines. The receptive skills tests use indirect assessment strategies and clerical scoring procedures.…

Direct assessments of the accuracy with which raters can use a rating instrument are presented. This study demonstrated how surplus behavioral incidents scaled during the development of Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) can be used effectively in the evaluation of the newly developed scales. Construction of scenarios of hypothetical…