Contends that understanding history is more than remembering isolated facts: it involves interpreting, hypothesizing, and evaluating. Provides recommendations for preparing elementary students for the California Learning Assessment System (CLAS). (CFR)

Describes the experiences of a teacher participating in a summer workshop held by the Institute for Education That Is Multicultural. Increased parent participation and performance assessment were integral parts of a pilot project that resulted in improved achievement and parent and student attitudes in an urban school. (SLD)

Describes a technique using a color-coded holistic scoring system to achieve greater understanding of the assessment process on the part of students by having them score classmates' solutions to a problem. (MKR)

Investigates the validity and reliability of performance assessments using data from over 300 fifth and sixth graders. Results demonstrate the gap between the reality of measurement through performance assessments and the political rhetoric that would institute these assessments in a national examination system in the immediate future. (SLD)

Describes policies and practices found in each of the participant countries in the Second International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement Science Study that could foster development of practical laboratory process skills. Topics include (1) science curriculum; (2) science teacher; (3) science facilities; and (4) learning by…

Information is presented about the educational systems of countries participating in the practical skills testing portions of the Second International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement Science Study, drawing on accounts submitted by the participant nations Hungary, Israel, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the United States.…

Discusses the movement toward authentic assessment, also called direct or performance assessment, as an alternative to multiple-choice, standardized, norm-referenced testing. Authentic testing involves assessment tasks that are real instances of extended criterion performances rather than proxies of actual learning goals. Questions use of…

The view of educational equity underlying the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) is apparent in the Kentucky primary education program. In addition to race, class, and gender equity concerns, the KERA primary program encompasses equity for gifted and special needs learners and teacher education for equity. (SLD)

Provides evidence that students who participated in the ASSET One-Stop Shopping program demonstrated enhanced academic progress and achievement. Includes suggestions for fostering student success in college. (17 citations) (YKH)

Scientific literacy and authenticity have gained a lot of attention in the past few decades worldwide. The goal of the study was to develop various authentic assessments to investigate students' scientific literacy for corresponding to the new curriculum reform of Taiwan in 1997. In the process, whether ninth graders were able to apply school…

The goal of this review of the clinical and research literature is to identify, describe, and critique published methods for assessment of attention and related functions in preschool children (ages 6 and younger). The need for valid assessment of preschool children has grown dramatically in the past two decades following the implementation of…

To examine the impact of transitioning 4th grade reading comprehension assessments to the computer, 219 fourth graders were randomly assigned to take a one-hour reading comprehension assessment on paper, on a computer using scrolling text to navigate through passages, or on a computer using paging text to navigate through passages. This study…

This book examines how five schools in New York City have developed "authentic," performance-based assessments of students' learning, and how this work has interacted with and influenced the teaching and learning experiences students encounter in school. Authentic assessment attempts to take the measure of a child's real work over time…

The shortcomings of standardized testing as the predominant form of student assessment in the United States are reviewed, and the use and potential benefits of portfolio assessment are explored. Children's educational experiences and their future job prospects and standards of living are being decided by test scores. Moreover, these test scores…

The papers in this book focus on the strategies, practices, theory, or research related to emergent literacy, elementary and secondary reading, literature, philosophy, affective issues, school improvement, teacher training, and assessment that are related in important ways to issues in past, present and future reading education. Papers in the book…