States are establishing high stakes assessments to serve as a measurement tool of students' academic abilities. This study essentially explored and sought to understand some of Maryland's mathematics and science practitioners' perspectives on increase testing, and the No Child left Behind (NCLB) Act. Basically, the study sought to understand and…

The Polish school education system makes a distinction between two types of assessment: (1) Intra-school or internal assessment; and (2) External assessment. The idea of introducing external examinations into the Polish school education system emerged in 1992. This was directly inspired by study visits to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands…

The IRT (Item Response Theory) has been studied and applied in computer-based test for decades. However, almost of all these existing studies evaluated focus merely on test questions with text-based (or static text/graphic) type of presentation form illustrated exclusively. In this paper, we present our study on test questions using both…

In Fall 1994, the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD), in California, conducted a study to determine the validity of the Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project (MDTP) placement test. The MDTP provides tests at four levels (i.e., algebra readiness, elementary algebra, intermediate algebra, and pre-calculus) and is used in the District for…

If it can be shown that the Scholastic Aptitude Test mathematics test (SAT-M) is a reasonably good predictor of success in particular mathematics courses, it may have a role as a measure of prerequisite skills. The predictive validity of the SAT-M was studied by collecting grades from freshman mathematics courses at 10 colleges (3,499 students).…

The 1993-94 school year was a transition year for the Nevada Proficiency Examination program in that it marked the year in which proficiency examinations were first mandated for grades 4, 8, and 11. Because the change from assessment at grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 would leave one class untested between grades 6 and 11, a requirement was passed for…

This study examines the linguistic features of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics test items and investigates the significance of language-related variables for NAEP's assessment in the content area of mathematics. The continuing increase in the number of language minority students in classrooms nationwide has…

This study aims to evaluate the degree to which the achievement level descriptions adopted by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) for the 1992 assessment in mathematics accurately represent what students at a given achievement level can do. NAGB descriptions of the levels were used to form lists of statements about what students at a…

This study investigated the dimensionality of mathematics subscale scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress for the assessment's Technical Review Panel, specifically for the data from the 1990 and 1992 main assessment in relation to students' instructional and noninstructional background variables. Discriminant analysis was…

High school seniors in Ohio who have passed all parts of the ninth-grade proficiency tests are required to take the twelfth-grade proficiency tests. These tests, in writing, reading, mathematics, citizenship, and science, are designed to measure twelfth-grade performance and to evaluate the learning that goes on between the minimum competencies of…

This research summarizes differential item functioning (DIF) results for student produced response (SPR) items, a nonmultiple-choice mathematical item type in the Scholastic Aptitude Test I (SAT I). DIF data from 4 field trial pretest administrations (620 SPR items) and 10 final forms (100 SPR items with samples ranging from about 58,000 to over…

This booklet summarizes findings from data on mathematics achievement gathered on the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for grades 4, 8, and 12. Approximately 26,000 4th, 8th, and 12th graders in 1,500 public and private schools participated in the national assessment. Information included in the report are: trends in…

The majority of research investigating gender-related differences in problem-solving ability has focused on the product of word problem solving--the problem solution. This paper reports an investigation of potential gender-related effects on sixth-graders of an explicitly stated problem-solving plan. Two versions of the test were given: the…

The purpose of this game, intended for grades 7-9, is to enable students to have fun and enjoy mathematics while learning and reinforcing: (1) mathematical concepts and applications; (2) mathematical computations; (3) geometry; and (4) mathematics for daily living. A gameboard and 232 question/answer cards are provided. Rules for play are…

A method is presented for determining the content validity of a series of secondary school mathematics tests. These tests are part of the Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project (MDTP), a collaborative effort by California university systems to develop placement examinations and a means to document student preparation in mathematics. Content…