State testing programs often attempt to provide annual information for use in student guidance and qualification, school and program evaluation, and broad policy decisions. With the development of a new type of assessment instrument, the "duplex design," the several functions of state testing programs can be served in a single test…

The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) is designed to monitor the transition of a national sample of young adults as they progress from junior to senior high school and then to postsecondary education or the world of work. An in-depth description is provided of the rationale, development, and psychometric properties of the…

The analysis of North Carolina performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is part of a larger program addressing the improvement of public school students' performance on skills measured by the SAT. This second of two volumes presents individual school system profiles for the mathematics and verbal sections of the SAT for the 126 school…

The redesigned Student Descriptive Questionnaire (SDQ) provides information about the number of years of study and types of courses in Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) examinees' academic backgrounds. This study used data from the 1987 National Sample Tape, which contains SDQ responses and score information from 100,000 seniors in the class of 1987.…

This document is the annual report on the South Carolina Basic Skills Assessment Program (BSAP) established by legislation in 1978. In 1988, the tests and the monitoring of the instructional components were completed on time. The tests include: (1) first grade readiness; (2) tests for grades 1, 2, 3, 6, and 8; and (3) the Exit Examination required…

A strategy that has been initiated to respond to assertions that out-of-date norms distort standardized achievement test results involves annually updating the norms for achievement tests to avoid the production of inflated scores through aging norms. The effect of the application of normative trend data to the obtained test results in an urban…

Alaskan students' scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) increased nine points between 1984 and 1985, matching the national gain. These scores marked the fourth year of increases following 17 years of consistently declining scores. Thirty-three percent of Alaska's high school seniors took the SAT in 1985. The combined score of 923 was 17…

This study was designed to explore the effect of selected test and background variables on the pooled within-school relationship between Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores and first year grade average (FYA), and to assess the potential role of selected Test of English as a Foreign Language-related variables as supplemental predictors…

Three questions concerning the Binary Search Method (BSM) of computerized adaptive testing were studied: (1) whether it provided a reliable and valid estimation of examinee ability; (2) its effect on examinee attitudes toward computerized adaptive testing and conventional paper-and-pencil testing; and (3) the relationship between item response…

This paper reports the findings of an investigation of the effects of school organization and ability grouping on students' academic achievements in Great Britain. Data for the study came from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) conducted by the National Children's Bureau (NCB) of London. The NCDS surveyed virtually every child born in…

Results of the Wisconsin Pupil Assessment Program's 1984 test administrations are summarized. A sample of 16,000 public school students were tested. Tests included objective-referenced tests in writing and understanding of economics, and the norm-referenced Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) test of reading, mathematics, and language.…

Data are summarized for results of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and achievement tests administered to high school seniors in Maine during 1984. Results are compared for the state of Maine, New England, and the United States. Trends are noted for the SAT from 1964 to 1984, and for the mathematics, verbal, and achievement tests from 1980 to…

Diverse information is compiled to begin to address the question of how well students in Alaska are achieving. In 1987, each of the 55 districts in Alaska submitted results of its standardized testing program for Reading, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics, Mathematics Problem Solving, and Language Arts for the three school years from 1984-85…

The data collection process is described for a new facet of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)--the state-level assessment of eighth-grade mathematics in 1990 and 1992 to determine the feasibility and validity of state assessments. For this Trial State Assessment, the NAEP will work with a State Coordinator from each of the 41…

The introduction of the trial state assessment program into the design of the 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) raises questions about differences across states in sampling and administration practices. In addition, questions about the general approach to comparing state data to national data need discussion. Subject areas…