The work we report focuses on utilizing linguistic profiles of mathematics, science and social studies textbook selections for the creation of reading test specifications. Once we determined that a text and associated tasks fit within the parameters established in Butler et al. (2004), they underwent both internal and external review by language…

GED "Scoreboost" materials target exactly the skills one needs to pass the General Educational Development (GED) tests. This book focuses on the thinking skills needed to pass GED tests in Reading, Social Studies, and Science. The test taker will need to succeed with GED questions that involve comprehension, application, analysis,…

Kentucky's goal of reaching academic "proficiency" by 2014 illuminated problematic findings in 2002 reading test scores: 44.30% of middle and 71.25% of high school students scored below "proficient." The research question was, "Do teaching practices in schools with high reading achievement scores differ from teaching practices in schools with low…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) seeks to include all students in the United States in the sampling frame from which students are selected to participate in the assessment. However, some students with disabilities (SWD) are either unable to take NAEP tests under standard testing conditions or are unable to perform at their…

This document contains materials directly related to the actual reading test of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), including the reading rubric, released passages, selected-response questions with answer keys, performance tasks, and scored samples of students' responses to the tasks. All of these items may be duplicated to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the achievement gap between minority and white students by analyzing 1996 and 2000 reading and mathematics scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) at grades 5, 8, and 10. The focus was on score increases, the achievement gap between white and minority students, and whether or not a…

This document outlines the test and item specifications for the Washington Assessment of Student Learning for seventh grade reading. It notes the purpose of this test is to measure Washington seventh grade students' level of proficiency in the Essential Academic Learning Requirements in reading, and that the reading test contains literary,…

Following the style of the 1958 original, this third edition of the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability is both a standardized attainment test and a diagnostic test and thus can be used to assess reading progress objectively as well as to obtain structured diagnostic observations of an individual's reading behavior. This Reader contains narratives…

This booklet presents the Reading Framework for the 1992, 1994, 1998, and 2000 National Assessments of Educational Progress (NAEP), adopted by the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB). The Framework contains the rationale for the aspects of reading assessed and criteria for development of the assessment. Developed through a national…

This paper states that today's newspaper and educational journal articles complain that only half the school population can read on grade level. Yet standardized tests are written to spread pupils out from the first to the 99th percentile, or from three or more standard deviations above to three or more standard deviations below the mean.…

The testing and measurement movement has certainly become important in United States education. Test scores are looked upon as being quite valuable in ascertaining student achievement, especially in the reading curriculum. Percentiles, standard deviations, stanine scores, and other indicators are given to show objectively how well the reading…

This handbook was developed to assist teachers in monitoring and charting the progress of kindergarten and primary grade students in the Chicago, Illinois, public schools. It is a loose-leaf binder of formal and informal tools designed to provide teachers with ongoing information about students' learning so they can promote continuous growth…

A central focus of this report is estimating whether retention had a positive impact in students' achievement growth. Evaluating the effect of retention means that the researchers have to find a comparison group of low-achieving students who might represent what would have happened if those students who failed to make the promotional cutoff had…

Study was designed to determine whether certain commercial 10-item multiple-choice reading comprehension tests were vulnerable to guessing. It was concluded that more valid comprehension tests could be developed if items were tested for guessability. (Author)