In this lesson, designed to be taught within a unit on China, primary-grade students will learn about the history of papermaking and its origins in China and even learn how to make their own paper. After learning about Chinese art and culture in the lesson, students will write their own "cinquain" poem about China. The lesson presents an…

The visual arts offer aesthetic, perceptual, creative, and intellectual opportunities. This lesson points out that by creating and painting mythological characters, students will improve their ability to analyze, reorganize, critique, and create. The lesson also intends for fourth-grade students to gain insight into Greek culture through the…

This book provides a practical approach to using and developing performance assessments. There are 13 chapters: (1) "Determining Goals, Targets, and Objectives" (what students should be able to do as a result of being in the class); (2) "How Will Assessment Be Used?" (how assessment can help or hinder the instructional process…

The Florida Writing Assessment was implemented in grades 4, 8, and 10 in 1998 as required by the Florida legislature. The assessment is designed to measure students' proficiency in writing responses to assigned topics within a designated testing period. This report contains writing assessment results for the whole state, school districts, and…

Compares two approaches for establishing student achievement standards and expectations for province-wide assessment in Saskatchewan (Canada). The first approach based standards on judges' estimates regarding the percentage of students who should be able to attain desired levels of performance. The second approach required judges to reach a…

The accuracy with which expert systems (ESs) score a new nonmultiple-choice free-response test item was investigated, using 734 high school students who were administered an advanced-placement computer science examination. ESs produced scores for 82 percent to 95 percent of the responses and displayed high agreement with a human reader on the…

The process of assigning grades to students is analyzed, and a specific approach to grading is recommended that distinguishes between minimal and developmental objectives. Criterion-referenced and norm-referenced concepts are used in the approach, which is best suited for secondary school or college. (SLD)

Results from a performance assessment in which 68 high school students wrote essays support the use of latent variable modeling for estimating reliability, concurrent validity, and generalizability of a scoring rubric. The latent variable modeling approach overcomes the limitations of certain conventional statistical techniques in handling…

Generalizability theory is used to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Listening and Writing Tests developed by American College Testing for its Work Keys program. Results with samples of 50 suggest the desirability of a minimum number of the tests' tape-recorded messages and the use of at least 2 raters. (SLD)

It is argued that the modification of the Nedelsky procedure proposed by L. J. Gross is a valid approach to setting standards when clinical reasoning is measured using multiple-choice questions. An example from the Medical Council of Canada's Qualifying Examination for approximately 2,400 examinees demonstrates the procedure's value. (SLD)

Effects of passage and item-scrambling on equipercentile and item-response theory equating were investigated using 2 scrambled versions of the American College Testing Program Assessment for approximately 25,000 examinees. Results indicate that using a base-form conversion table with a scrambled form affects the individual examinee level. (SLD)

Gender differences in omitting items and guessing on multiple-choice tests were studied in Israel for 302 male and 302 female ninth graders and 150 male and 150 female university applicants. Females tended to omit more items and guess less often than did males. Implications for scoring are discussed. (SLD)

This paper assists teachers in developing grading practices that communicate students' achievements to their parents effectively and fairly. A teacher's personal grading philosophy must be considered in developing a personal plan. Procedural steps in establishing a plan are outlined, and the features of several common methods are compared. (SLD)

To develop Australian norms for the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (Survey Form), data for 600 children aged 5-9 years were assessed. Interviews were conducted with 589 of the subjects' parents. Consistently lower scores by Australian children indicated that American norms require adjustment for Australian use. Recommended adjustments are…

Issues that program planners should consider in developing performance standards for the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) older worker programs (OWPs) are reviewed. Using goal-setting theory and the results of a two-year evaluation of OWPs in Texas, the discussion covers approaches to developing standards for programs other states. (TJH)