A new assessment conception is described that integrates constructed-response testing, artificial intelligence, and model-based measurement. The conception incorporates complex constructed-response items for their potential to increase the validity, instructional utility, and credibility of standardized tests. Artificial intelligence methods are…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Writing Assessment measured student writing performance at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grades. Scoring guides for each grade allowed scorers to objectively evaluate students' work. This issue of NAEPfacts includes a 4th-grade narrative scoring guide, along with samples of student work at each…

An essay test is now an integral part of the computer based Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL-CBT). This paper provides a brief overview of the current TOEFL-CBT essay test, describes the operational procedures for essay scoring, including the Online Scoring Network (OSN) of the Educational Testing Service (ETS), and discusses major…

This activity guide, for Colorado teachers responsible for teaching geography to students in grades K-12, explains how to use the principles of contextual learning to integrate academic content standards with career development and workplace competencies. The introduction discusses the guide's purpose, the role of standards and assessments in the…

This paper presents a comparison of two commonly used methods, Angoff (W. Angoff, 1971) and Bookmark (D. Lewis, H. Mitzel, and D. Green, 1996), for setting cut scores on selected response tests. This comparison is presented through an application to a grade 7 mathematics assessment in a suburban Midwestern school district. Training and operational…

This action research project implemented and evaluated an assessment and evaluation program designed to keep students motivated and on-task in art classes. Targeted population consisted of 76 fourth grade students in a middle to lower class suburb of a Midwestern city. Evidence to support the problem consisted of teacher observation checklists and…

This study investigated whether raters in two different training groups would demonstrate halo error when each rater scored all five responses to five different mathematics performance-based items from each student. One group of 20 raters was trained by an experienced scoring director with item-specific scoring rubrics and the opportunity to…

This supplement to the resources and training manual Assessing Youth Success was designed as a facilitator's guide to activities for a 3-hour training. The purpose of the training is to help participants become more proficient in assessing youth success. The supplement contains five new optional activities intended to help participants explore…

This paper discusses cohorts of Rio Hondo College (California) fall term students who completed the English/English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) assessment test under the ESL scoring rubric between fall 1996 and spring 2001, and considers the relationships of assessment testing, enrollment, and course success. Report highlights include: (1) the…

Researchers noted that introducing technology within a course specific framework, such as a methods class, often results in preservice teachers increasing their computer competency and confidence in using technology and can greatly influence the adoption of technology as part of instructional experiences. To determine if these constructs were…

This Writing Instructional Intervention Supplement from the Mississippi Department of Education contains benchmarks, informal assessments, and suggested teaching strategies for the fourth through eighth grades. Benchmarks outline what students should know and be able to do to meet mandated competencies. Informal and observational assessments…

Setting standards on educational tests is extremely challenging. The psychometric literature is replete with methods and guidelines for setting standards on educational tests; however, little attention has been paid to the process of setting standards on computerized adaptive tests (CATs). This lack of attention is unfortunate because CATs are…

This paper looks at using descriptions of subject matter content to assist in the development and interpretation of student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). These descriptions of content, called achievement level descriptions (ALDs), were initially conceptualized as exemplary statements of the knowledge and…

This report discusses the outcomes of a study that investigated teacher perceptions of the educational value of the Indiana Assessment System of Educational Proficiencies (IASEP) as an effective tool used to evaluate educational progress for students with moderate and severe disabilities. Fifteen teachers of students with moderate and severe…

Ideas about educational assessment are synthesized to construct a Quality Assessment Checklist that can be used to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of classroom assessments. Sound assessment begins with clear and appropriate learning targets. Once learning targets have been identified, they need to be matched with appropriate methods.…