By 1985, nearly half of the nation's public school students will be required to pass a minimum competency test (MCT) for high school graduation. Supporters of objectives underlying the MCTs suggest that the tests will force school systems to take their responsibilities to all children more seriously. Critics argue that students who fail will…

This kit has been designed by teachers at the Atlanta Area Center for Teachers (Georgia) to offer beginning teachers support and suggestions as they begin the challenge of their first year of teaching. Because most new teachers in Georgia must participate in Competency Based Teacher Performance Certification, this package has been sequenced…

Truth in testing, competency testing, and intelligence tests constitute the central topics of this newsletter. The authors review a report prepared by the Education Commission of the States on truth-in-testing legislation and litigation, covering recent efforts at the state and federal levels to open the testing process to public scrutiny. They…

A review of state laws governing certification of professional educators reveals both wide agreement on many certification issues and a shift toward making requirements more stringent. Teacher certification has long been accepted as a means of ensuring minimum competency. Many of the issues surrounding certification have been settled, including…

This monograph briefly describes state legislation and administrative rules concerning competency-based education. Defeated legislation is also included. In 1978-79 California, Nevada, and New York are requiring graduating seniors to pass a proficiency exam before receiving a diploma. In Nevada and New York similar exams are administered to…

Four competency catalogs of tasks for industrial arts programs are presented. These include catalogs in Exploring Technology, Modern Industry, Construction, and Manufacturing. The purpose of each catalog is to establish a basis for program content selection and criterion levels from which one may measure to see if individual learners have achieved…

Over the past few years, several complicated innovations, such as mainstreaming and minimal competency testing, have confronted teachers in addition to their usual responsibilities. In order to facilitate the teachers' implementation of such changes, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) was developed, using the teacher and the innovation as…

Focusing on assessment centers, this chapter is one of seven in a report that examines the assessment of occupational competence. Assessment centers are presented first in a historical context (their origins in personality theory), through which their evolution is traced and examined. What follows is a description of current assessment center…

This document is one of ten curriculum guides developed by the Nevada Competency-Based Adult High School Diploma (CBAHSD) Project. This curriculum guide on mathematics is divided into three topics. The topics included are Problem Solving, Computation, and Geometry and Measurement. Competency statements and performance indicators are provided for…

Achieving equality and quality in schooling is the greatest educational need of the 1980s. Three state and federal actions are necessary to facilitate this. They are: (1) an acknowledgement of the direct connection between education and employment; (2) a specification of performance levels by high school students in life competencies; and (3) a…

Guidelines are provided to assist New Jersey local school districts in improving and strengthening their graduation policies in accordance with the new law and regulations. Basic skills proficiency requirements have been enacted in Chapter 241, Laws of 1979. This law requires that students successfully pass tests in reading, writing and…

Instructional guidelines for grade 3 objectives being tested by the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS) are presented. The guidelines are designed to be helpful to primary grade teachers in clarifying expectations regarding the TABS tests. Looking at the grade 3 basic skill descriptions will indicate what students in kindergarten through grade…

An analysis of the assessment results and general findings of a statewide assessment in reading conducted in Hawaii in 1975 is presented in this report. Chapters provide a perspective on the assessment program, the preparation of the statewide assessment, the methodology used, the procedures for data analysis, and the results and findings of…

The Degrees of Reading Power Test was developed to address some existing problems in testing comprehension. The test design reflects the need to consider problems of passage dependency, difficulty of questions, tests for continuous text, and sensitivity to gains. It emphasizes a set of response options controlled for familiarity, a text that is…

This final report describes a coordinated dissemination program that was developed to help provide educational information to the teaching personnel of the Puerto Rico Department of Education. Objectives, problems, accomplishments, and recommendations are included; appendices provide the program's budget, the questionnaire used to assess the needs…