The Tennessee Career Ladder Program is a statewide evaluation system designed to pay teachers for teaching well. The system is based on a set of objectives called Domains of Competence, which are subdivided into Indicators. Early in the design of the system, it was decided to use multiple data sources, including a variety of instruments, to assess…

A Hungarian teacher of English as a foreign language (EFL) chronicles her research on the use of the cloze procedure in her native country's EFL classes. The research began as an effort to convince other teachers of the test format's usefulness, and ultimately led to further study of the factors affecting responses and scoring and the…

The assignment of grades to students is discussed, and a grading process is recommended. The process begins with the separation of minimal and developmental objectives. Minimal objectives represent course outcomes that all students are expected to achieve; developmental objectives are more complex goals toward which students strive, but which few…

The increasing interest in oral proficiency during the past decade prompted Educational Testing Service (ETS) to undertake the development of the Test of Spoken English (TSE), a standardized test of speaking proficiency of non-native speakers of English. The test has been validated for the selection of non-native teaching assistants applying to…

A loglinear item response theory (IRT) model is proposed that relates polytomously scored item responses to a multidimensional latent space. Each item may have a different response function where each item response may be explained by one or more latent traits. Item response functions may follow a partial credit model (D. Andrich, 1978; and G. N.…

Statistical equating of scores from direct writing assessments is performed in Maryland to hold the difficulty of passing the Maryland Writing Test (MWT) equivalent from year to year and to allow a demonstration of growth in student writing achievement over the years. Passage of the test is a high school graduation requirement. Prior to…

The preliminary work of the Scottish "School-Based Assessment of Communicative Foreign-Language Skills in Secondary Classes 3 and 4" to train teachers to undertake increased testing responsibilities under recent educational reforms is explained. The models of communicative competence and performance being developed for use with classroom…

A bulletin concerning Alberta's Grade 6 French language achievement test to be administered in June 1988 provides specific information about the test's design, items, and scoring. It begins with general information about the province's achievement test program in English and goes on to describe and illustrate the French language arts achievement…

This document contains the agenda for an Administrator's Workshop given by the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) of the College Board. Included are an update on CLEP activities, a section on reaching out to faculty, and a section on reaching out to adult students. Covered in the update on CLEP activities are results of 1984 workshop surveys…

Results are presented of the Connecticut Statewide Basic Skills Proficiency Test, which was administered to Connecticut ninth graders for the fourth time in 1983. The history of the test is summarized; it was designed to identify students who are performing so far below grade level that they require remedial instruction to succeed in the ninth…

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was used in this study, which attempted to develop a new methodology for assessing the speededness of right-scored tests. Traditional procedures of assessing speededness have assumed that the test is scored under formula-scoring instructions; this approach is not always appropriate. In this study,…

The Board of Education of the Houston Independent School District, through the Volunteers in Public Schools, organized the Kindergarten Screening Project in 1970. The screening instruments and procedures were developed by a committee of specialists composed of representatives from the Houston Independent School District, Baylor College of…

The Computer-Managed Education Technology (COMET) program was designed to improve group instruction through the use of technological aids in the classroom. Specific objectives included: (1) improving feedback on student comprehension during a class period; (2) facilitating the administration and grading of homework and quizzes; (3) providing for…

This handbook describes the procedures used to develop, administer, and analyze the results of the 1978-79 art assessment of 9-year-olds, and 17-year-olds by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The primary purpose of the handbook is to provide detailed procedural information for people interested in replicating the assessment…

The broad topic of preparing examinations for college-level courses is addressed in this guide. General suggestions include the following: devise a test that reinforces the objectives established for the course; decide upon the primary purpose of the test before constructing it; make the test as valid and reliable as possible; and standardize the…