Many educators are shifting their teaching strategies and approaches to include more emphasis on critical thinking skills, the communication of ideas, a variety of approaches to content emphasizing varied student learning styles, and the need to draw explicit connections among topics for retention of learning. Real-world assessment measures, then,…

Current national efforts to expand the role of educational assessment and radically change the nature of assessment are discussed. Rationales for expectations that a new national examination system would serve as a lever of educational reform are analyzed. Challenges posed for educational measurement by the proposed heavy reliance on complex,…

This report, part of a series of documents which describe assessment of student learning in various curriculum areas, focuses on assessment of student learning in the mathematics classroom, beginning with an overview of current curriculum goals in mathematics. The rationale for reforming the content, instructional practices, and assessment methods…

As part of a series of documents on assessment of student learning in various school curriculum areas, this report describes assessment of student learning in the foreign language classroom in South Carolina. The report begins with an overview of current curriculum goals in foreign language education and the status of assessment practices in this…

This document, part of a series of papers which describe the assessment of student learning in areas of the curriculum from prekindergarten through grade 12, focuses on assessment in the language arts. Current practices are reviewed. Subsequent sections describe guidelines for appropriate curriculum goals and content in language arts programs. A…

In 1991 the Center for Reading and Language Studies at Indiana University (Bloomington) assembled educational experts to investigate the validity of performance-based assessments for determining the achievement of high school students in reading, writing, and mathematics. The Indiana Performance Assessments that materialized from this project were…

This book contains necessary information to help teachers deal with the assessment concerns of classroom teachers. The major theme is that classroom assessment should help teachers make better educational decisions. Each chapter contains several elements intended to foster mastery of its contents, including a summary of contents, a more succinct…

Growth toward the goals of the mindful school requires new and more authentic and appropriate forms of assessment. This volume describes a wide range of alternative forms of assessment, presenting them in a meaningful and practical format so that they can be applied in classrooms. Having a range of strategies for assessment allows for the…

This book is designed to introduce education students to the essentials of measurement and evaluation. It focuses on the topics essential to effective classroom teaching and treats these topics in a way that emphasizes the human context that surrounds and guides their use. The book is organized into three main sections. The first is understanding…

The attributes of Kentucky's Primary Program are developmentally appropriate practices; multi-age classrooms; continuous progress; authentic assessment; qualitative reporting; professional teamwork; and parent involvement. This document serves as a guide for teachers who wish to make changes concerning these attributes as they relate to four…

The Maryland School Performance Program released six sample tasks to illustrate the types of assessment tasks that would appear on the 1992 Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP). Students' responses to these tasks are open-ended; that is, students generate their own responses. A wide range of responses to each task is acceptable.…

Exploratory work in the implementation of a portfolio assessment system at an elementary school in Washington State is described. The effectiveness of the assessment strategy is examined in relation to: (1) teacher implementation levels; (2) student demographic variables; and (3) teacher ratings of students' academic and social adjustment levels…

Large-scale assessment programs are beginning to design group assessment tasks in which small groups of students collaborate to solve problems or complete projects. However, little is known about the validity of data from group assessment for making inferences about the competence of individual students. The present study compared students'…

Recent years have seen a new and serious commitment to improving methods of assessing academic performance. Schools, school districts, and states are experimenting with a wide range of assessment alternatives. This paper is about this new commitment to assessment and begins with some background on standardized tests because the rationale for…

When the North Dakota State Department of Education mandated new guidelines for accreditation, each school district in the state was required to develop and implement student performance standards and measurements for every curricular area. This paper describes one district's approach to developing a performance assessment program. Teacher…