The New York State Education Department (NYSED) has a partnership with Questar Assessment Inc. (Questar) for the development of the 2020 Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Tests. Teachers from across the State work with NYSED in a variety of activities to ensure the validity and reliability of the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP). The 2020…

Since their introduction in the 1990s, explicit standards documents have pervaded higher education assessment--success likely linked to their compatibility with constructive alignment and quality assurance regimes. Researchers, however, criticise that such documents are based on a misconception of standards as explicit and absolute, when in fact…

In the mid-nineteenth century, a system of music examinations was initiated in Britain that came to encompass the far-flung reaches of the British Empire. These examinations offered an internationally recognized system of professional and musical standards. For the next several decades the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) and…

This study examined the scoring errors across three widely used achievement tests (Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement--Second Edition [KTEA-2], Woodcock--Johnson Tests of Achievement--Third Edition [WJ-III], and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test--Third Edition [WIAT-III]) by novice examiners. A total of 114 protocols were evaluated for…

The instructions in this manual explain the responsibilities of school administrators for the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Mathematics Paper-Based Field Tests. School administrators must be thoroughly familiar with the contents of the manual, and the policies and procedures must be followed as written…

The PhD is the highest formal qualification and signifies a scholar's rite of passage as a legitimate contributor of new knowledge in a field. Examiner reports make claims about what is legitimate in a thesis and what is not and thus articulate the organising principles through which participation in a field is measured. The authors analysed 39…

It is widely accepted dogma that consequential decisions are better made with multiple measures, because using but a single one is thought more likely to be laden with biases and errors that can be better controlled with a wider source of evidence for making judgments. Unfortunately, advocates of using multiple measures too rarely provide detailed…

The instructions in this manual explain the responsibilities of school administrators for the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Mathematics Field Tests, and the Elementary-level (Grade 5) and Intermediate-level (Grade 8) Science Field Tests. School administrators must be thoroughly familiar with the…

The present investigation explores Cognitive Test Anxiety (CTA) in a high-stake oral examination, taking into consideration how face-to-face and computer-based examination formats affect test-takers' anxiety and consequently language performance. Two speaking tests -- face-to-face and computer-based -- were developed for a Spanish university's…

The instructions in this manual explain the responsibilities of school administrators for the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Mathematics Tests. School administrators must be thoroughly familiar with the contents of the manual, and the policies and procedures must be followed as written so that testing…

Classroom-based assessments have the potential to enhance validity by facilitating the assessment of important skills that are difficult to assess in written examinations. Such assessments tend to be marked by teachers. To ensure consistent marking standards, quality assurance procedures are needed. In the context of continued debate over the…

The 21st century has witnessed the emergence of a framework for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) as a supplementary assessment strategy. The aim of this study is to report on the research that explored the knowledge assessed through Mature Age Entry (MAE) admission tests in Namibian institutions of higher learning. The transformative model was…

In a context of international concern about academic standards, the practice of external examining is widely admired for its role in defending standards. Yet a contradiction exists between this faith in examining and continuing concerns about standards. This article argues that external examining rests on assumptions about standards which are…

The instructions in this manual explain the responsibilities of school administrators for the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Mathematics Tests. School administrators must be thoroughly familiar with the contents of the manual, and the policies and procedures must be followed as written so that testing…

Sound test security policies and procedures are needed to ensure test security and confidentiality, and to help prevent cheating. In this era when cheating on tests draws regular media attention, there is a need for thoughtful consideration of the ways in which possible test security measures may affect accessibility for some students with…