A teacher describes how he changed the way his high school students learned mathematics, using cooperative learning methodology and focusing on oral, as opposed to written, examinations and on group effort as opposed to individual effort. As the students' learning changed, the teacher was faced with the new problem of assessing the new type of…

This paper reports the results of a large-scale portfolio pilot in which over 2,000 secondary students submitted portfolios in language arts, mathematics, and science classes. Students were asked to select work for their portfolios based on the criteria that would be used to evaluate the work. Students also reflected on how their work satisfied…

A practice test has been prepared to give students experience with test items that are similar to those on the Ohio Ninth-grade Proficiency Tests. The practice test consists of one writing prompt, 20 reading questions, 20 mathematics questions, 25 citizenship questions, and 20 science questions. This manual contains instructions to the teacher, as…

Assessment moderation is a procedure in which scorers or raters meet to achieve a consensus on scores assigned to student work. In the Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP), local teams of teachers met regularly at six sites nationwide to score student work, review methods of assigning scores, discuss and resolve discrepancies…

Performance assessments in education and credentialing are becoming popular. At the same time, there do not exist any well established and validated methods for setting standards on performance assessments. This paper describes several of the new standard-setting methods that are emerging for use with performance assessments and considers their…

This article explores issues involved in using assessments as a means of defining standards and encouraging efforts to meet them. It compares the European examination system with the present American testing system. It also considers issues that must be faced in defining learning domains in ways that do not encourage narrowly focused training on…

A strategy is proposed for combining scores from multiple-choice achievement measures with performance assessments. The specific situation discussed involves the revision of a curriculum-based multiple-choice and performance assessment testing program for grades 1 through 6 for a large school district. Reading, language-arts, and mathematics…

In 1990, a study was conducted at Rio Hondo College (Whittier, California) to determine if readers exhibited any bias in scoring test papers that were composed on a word processor as opposed to being written by hand. The study began with the formulation of tentative pilot study questions and the development of procedures to address them. Three…

The American Association of School Administrators, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the National Council on Measurement in Education are cooperating on a project to develop competency standards for educational administrators in the area of student assessment. A…

Evaluation findings are presented from a 2-year project to design and field test an embedded assessment system in concert with the development of a middle school science course, "Issues, Evidence, and You," (IEY), by the Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP) at the Lawrence Hall of Science. IEY is a four-part course…

With the assistance of learning technology consultants in the Technology Teaching and Learning Center (TTLC) at the University of Houston-Downtown (Texas), professors have shifted their paradigms and are taking the leap to use more high-risk World Wide Web technologies in their courses. One that has become a hallmark is delivering exams via the…

The nine-volume Survey Kit is designed to help readers prepare and conduct surveys and become better users of survey results. All the books in the series contain instructional objectives, exercises and answers, examples of surveys in use, illustrations of survey questions, guidelines for action, checklists of "dos and don'ts," and…

This paper describes the processes that one school district, the Visalia Unified School District (California), went through in establishing a standards-based assessment and accountability system using multiple methods. First the district's standards-based assessment and accountability system and the methods used to establish it are described, and…

The Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) is a relatively new, statewide performance assessment of students in grades 3, 5, and 8. When first administered in May of 1991, the MSPAP included a battery of performance assessment tasks designed to generate written or drawn responses to reading texts. This study evaluated selected…

This notebook contains the revised standards and guidelines for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), as well as an updated and consolidated version of NCES legislation. It is intended for NCES staff and contractors as a guide in their data collection, analysis, and dissemination. These standards and guidelines define the limits of…