The assessment instruments of the Maine Educational Assessment emphasize extended constructed-response questions. The results from these assessments are reported in terms of percentages of students at four performance levels. The Student-Based Constructed-Response Method was used to establish performance standards for these levels on the…

The Ohio Fourth-grade Proficiency Tests, which are described in this information guide, are designed to measure a fourth-grade level of literacy and basic competence. Proficiency tests in writing, reading, mathematics, and citizenship were implemented in March 1995, and a science assessment is planned for March 1996. These tests will be…

Issues in collecting data on the classroom performance of teachers are discussed, with a focus on written descriptions of teacher behavior in contrast with videotaped observations. The central issue in this comparison is the comparability of the information when it is observed live and when it is simply recorded on videotape. The fundamental…

The New Mexico Portfolio Writing Assessment for grades 4 and 6 (optional for grade 8) is conducted each school year with a call for each student's best piece in March. All students in grades 4 and 6 participate, unless assessed as Limited English Proficient. This Teacher's Guide provides instructions for procedures to be followed throughout the…

The New Mexico Portfolio Writing Assessment for grades 4 and 6 (optional for grade 8) is conducted each school year, with a call for each student's best piece in March. This Teacher's Guide provides instructions for implementing the portfolio program throughout the year, in order to ensure standardized application of the process. The portfolio…

In 1991 Pennsylvania began implementation of a direct writing assessment at the sixth-grade and ninth-grade levels. A total of 18,758 sixth graders and 16,575 ninth graders wrote a response to 1 of 9 prompts reflecting 3 modes of writing. A six-point holistic scale was used to score the papers, with two readers scoring each paper. A third reader,…

The goals, principles, and methods of an individualized educational assessment are described as implemented in a 12th-grade science assessment instrument undergoing field trials in Ohio. Pilot tests were planned for December 1990 and March and April 1991. The assessment design incorporates the duplex design of R. D. Bock and R. J. Mislevy (1988)…

A basic technical framework is provided for the design and use of mastery tests. The Mastery Testing Project (MTP) prepared this framework using advanced mathematics supplemented with computer simulation based on real test data collected by the South Carolina Statewide Testing Program. The MTP focused on basic technical issues encountered in using…

Since the mean score for a sample composed of several subgroups can be viewed as the sum of the mean of each subgroup weighted by the proportional size of the subgroup, then the mean change in a time period--in this case, from 1972 to 1980--is the sum of the differences between the means for each subgroup, with each mean weighted by its…

This paper describes two case studies of testing programs at local levels. The work was conducted as part of the Assessment Development and Use component of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's (NWREL) Assessment and Development project. Two school districts were recruited to participate in this effort--McMinnville, Oregon, and Kyrene,…

Assessment procedures were developed to identify those naval officers who would be most effective in providing career guidance services to enlisted personnel. Several tests were administered to officers performing career counseling duties. These tests included a cognitive battery, the Navy Basic Test Battery (BTB); as well as the Guilford Tests of…

This study examines the relationship between an open-ended cloze test and its multiple-choice versions generated from three sources: (1) interlingual learner-generated distractors--distractors selected from one language group and administered to a different language group, (2) intralingual learner-generated distractors--distractors selected from…

This primer is an introduction to item response theory (also called item characteristic curve theory, or latent trait theory) as it is used most commonly--for scoring multiple choice achievement or aptitude tests. Written for the testing practitioner with minimum training in statistics and psychometrics, it presents and illustrates the basic…

The issue of using language proficiency or language dominance to assess programs for high school students with limited English speaking backgrounds is addressed. The development and initial analyses of the Competency Based Oral Language Assessment (COLA) are discussed. Three components of oral language are rated separately: semantics; syntax and…

The administrators' and teachers' manual for the New York State Preliminary Competency Test in Reading provides information on the student population to be tested; the degrees of reading power (DRP) methodology to measure students' reading comprehension; the test content; and the state reference point, a cutoff score expressed in terms of…