American educators are participating in a harmful, unwinnable contest--the score-boosting game. Standardized tests yield an inaccurate picture of school staff's instructional practices. Administrators should provide assessment-literacy training, brief educational policymakers, encourage autonomous parent groups, analyze test items, and create…

Within the context of the overall development of a range of assessment instruments for setting standards (language benchmarks) for primary and secondary teachers in Hong Kong, this article describes the origins of a project that developed the Benchmarks Test. Looks at the process of piloting, moderating, ratifying, and implementing the test of…

Results are presented from two studies involving 190 primary and high school students and 146 primary students with reading difficulties. These studies contributed toward the development of five 200 word standardized passages which may be employed interchangeably to monitor the performance of students with reading difficulties towards achieving…

Describes various collaborative programs between community arts organizations and schools that provide long-range talent development. Considers the aspects of identifying artistic talent within the arts. Addresses artistic underpinnings, perceptual discrimination, metaperception, creative interpretation, student commitment, the procedures, the…

Examines the effect of Catholic school culture on academic achievement in the Higher School Certificate Examination. Attempts to model achievement as the outcome of a Catholic school culture that is the result of variables operating at both the individual and school levels. Develops and tests the model. Discusses the findings in detail. (CMK)

Reports on a study comparing student performances and test reliabilities for the German Speaking Test, a semi-direct tape-mediated oral proficiency test (GST) developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics, and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Oral Proficiency Interviews. (Author/VWL)

Addresses the problems of using student test scores to evaluate teachers, citing North Carolina as an example. Considers the problems with accountability laws, misidentifying problems when using student test scores, and teaching to the test. Discusses appropriate accountability mechanisms, the importance of social context, and organizing for…

Investigates the responses of a sample of preservice biology teachers enrolled in a teaching methods course to a casual question about why water rose in a jar inverted over a burning candle placed in a pan of water by formulating and testing six hypotheses. (Contains 43 references.) (Author/YDS)

Discusses activities for developing students' listening comprehension in English-as-a-foreign-language classrooms in China. The activities have proved successful, and students participating in these courses have done well on the National Test for English Majors Band 4. (Author/VWL)

Examines the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP), which tests all freshmen entering Texas public colleges. Suggests shifting emphasis from the testing instrument to reasons for poor student performance, since emphasis on testing has resulted in large increases in remedial instruction. Concludes that although TASP is a valid diagnostic tool, the…

High-stakes testing is forcing debate over achieving both educational excellence and equity. A pragmatic, middle position claims high-stakes testing can work with clear but limited goals, flexibility, and the will to address at-risk students' problems. Texas, Chicago, and New York City programs and implementation steps are highlighted. (MLH)

Discusses a six month project where pre-K-4 students in a music class explored whether humans were the only beings on earth who could sing or were musical. Explains that the music and science teachers collaborated on this project enabling the students to create hypotheses and test their observations on animals' musical abilities. (CMK)

Addresses the challenges faced in developing a task-based language assessment instrument for adult immigrants in Canada that is accountable to the needs of diverse groups of stakeholders, including learners, teachers, and administrators. The test, the Canadian Language Benchmarks Assessment (CLBA), is designed to place adult newcomers in language…

This study assessed the impact of training on the knowledge and confidence of over 80 teachers in decision making regarding participation and accommodation for students with disabilities in large-scale assessments. After training teachers expressed high confidence in their ability to make such decisions and a stronger relationship was found among…

Based on a survey among 1274 secondary school teachers in Flanders (Belgium), this paper describes the relationship between the assessment practices and forms of assessment policy (testing culture or assessment culture) and between forms of general school policy (student-oriented or achievement-oriented) and forms of assessment policy that…