In spring 1986 Anglo students received higher scores than Blacks or Hispanics on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), on all subtests and at all grade levels in the Denver (Colorado) Public Schools. This study, by attempting to locate patterns of item response, seeks to identify items in the ITBS that suggest differential pupil achievement by…

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was administered to 26 hearing impaired college students, in order to test the assumption that the English-language deficiencies of hearing impaired students are similar to those of foreign students. The students were attending Gallaudet College's School of Preparatory Studies and were identified…

The longitudinal effects of Louisiana's Compensatory/Remedial Program upon student performance were assessed using data from four administrations of the Basic Skills Test (BST) between 1982 and 1985. Language arts and mathematics tests were administered in grades 2 through 5. Scores increased slightly between 1982 and 1984, and declined in 1985;…

Proceedings are presented of the 1979 meeting of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, which includes speeches on outcomes assessment along with the business meeting of the Association. In the keynote address, "Outcomes Assessment--A New Era in Accreditation," Howard R. Bowen identifies goals an educational institution…

The family of Weibull distributions was investigated as a model for the distributions of response times for items in computer-based criterion-referenced tests. The fit of these distributions were, with a few exceptions, good to excellent according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. For a few relatively simple items, the two-parameter gamma…

The 1979-80 South Carolina Statewide Testing Program assessed the achievement of students in public school grades 3, 6, and 11. Results were used to facilitate the decision-making process of educators at the state, district, and school levels. The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) were used to measure achievement in the basic skill areas…

This ethnographic study investigated the implementation process of mathematics curriculum initiatives designed to improve student achievement in a test-driven accountability environment. The research focused on complex factors within the school contextual environment influencing implementation and student achievement specifically, leadership;…

A study using the static-group research design was performed comparing the raw standardized Stanford 9 high stakes test scores of career and technical education (CTE) students with those of other students while controlling for extraneous variables such as learning styles, special populations, gender, race, and ethnicity. Two thousand high school…

People live in a fast-paced world in which, as the saying goes, the only constant is change. Like the rest of society, the American higher education system is grappling with changes that are significantly altering the landscape. This report surveys the higher education landscape and highlights a number of facts about the various converging trends.…

The effects of extended time on SAT Reasoning Test™ performance are examined. The study explored the impact of providing standard time, time and a half (1.5 time) with and without specified section breaks, and double time without specified section breaks on the verbal and mathematics sections of the SAT®. Differences among ability, disability, and…

For the past few years the Florida School Code has set the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) performance requirements for promotion of 3rd graders and graduation for 10th graders. Grade 3 students who do not score at level 2 or higher on the FCAT SSS Reading must be retained unless exempted for special circumstances. Grade 10 students…

The College Board developed a program in the content areas of English and mathematics designed to prepare students for challenging content as early as grade 6 and extending through high school. Conceived with the goal of creating high-quality professional development activities with associated instructional strategies embedded in instructional…

Steele and Aronson (1995) found that the performance of African-American subjects on test items portrayed as a problem-solving task, in a laboratory experiment, was adversely affected when they were asked about their ethnicity. This outcome was attributed to "stereotype threat". Performance was disrupted by the subjects' concerns about…

This study investigated the impact on ethnic, language, and gender groups of a new kind of essay prompt type intended for use with the new SAT®. The study also generated estimates of the reliability of scores obtained using the prompts examined. To examine the impact of a new prompt type, random samples of eleventh-grade students in 49…

This report summarizes the 2000-2001 program evaluation results of AISD's AVID program, a program designed to help underachieving students with academic potential prepare for entrance into colleges and universities.