In this objective scoring procedure for assessing learning-disabled students' writing, a standardized process is used to collect writing samples, which are then scored for number of legible words, total number of words written, percentage of legible words, correctly spelled words, number of correct word sequences, and mean length of correct word…

Education remains heavily shackled by punitive, test-driven reform. Despite reasonable alternatives, testing increasingly drives educational accountability and reform. Standardization of direct writing assessments promotes scoring reliability and facilitates educational comparisons and rankings. However, standardized writing is not good writing,…

Describes an educational strategy that uses current multimedia resources to combine sounds and images important to students. States that the arts can provide students with the opportunity to create and share new perspectives about their worlds with their peers and others. Provides a scoring rubric and steps for a middle school project. (CMK)

Instructional rubrics, concerned with gradations of quality, are easy to use and explain, communicate teacher expectations clearly, provide students with constructive feedback, and support learning, skill development, understanding, and good thinking. Tips for constructing rubrics and encouraging student participation and self-evaluation are…

Across five continents, operant testing schemes are the assessment equivalent of an English jumble sale. Test types, rationales, preparation times, and scoring practices are equally diverse in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, England, Germany, Israel, and Japan. Most systems are in flux or under scrutiny. (MLH)

Adapted the scoring matrix, a method used to facilitate community participation in planning and monitoring development projects, to a university course in participatory resource management. Suggests the matrix is an example of how discipline-specific tools can be adapted to serve the dual purposes of promoting experiential learning of…

Explains how rubrics can be used to assess children's understanding of chance and data concepts. Encounters unexpected results besides assessing chance and data outcomes. (ASK)

Credentialing programs were surveyed to determine the procedures they use to set performance standards on multiple-choice and open-ended assessments. Implications of the various standard-setting approaches for the National Assessment of Educational Progress are discussed, and it is asserted that generalizing from standard-setting in professional…

This paper provides an original Web Assessment Index that focuses on accessibility, speed, navigability, and content. Explains the scoring mechanism, applies the index to assess Web sites of all Spanish universities, and suggests future research. (Author/LRW)

This article presents a procedure found effective for including students with special needs in daily instructional activities within a general classroom. Steps in the procedure include individualized instruction incorporating student choice of materials, feedback from teacher-designed rubrics, application of student-constructed reading logs, and…

Provides an overview of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Psychology test focusing on the scoring system for the GRE Psychology test, who prepares the test and how the test is prepared, and the usefulness of the GRE Psychology test. Explores some future directions for the test. (CMK)

This article discusses important principles for assessing language arts instruction for gifted learners. It stresses the importance of multiple measures and approaches being employed at formative and summative stages of the instructional process. Examples of rubrics, portfolios, and performance-based models are provided, along with ideas for…

Developed a procedure for defining achievement levels on continuous scales using aspects of Guttman scaling (L. Guttman, 1950) and Item Response Theory. Using data from high school mathematics tests for about 6,000 students, found the new procedure to have higher reliability, higher classification consistency, and lower classification error than…

This paper describes a method for scaling and reporting test results when comparing different types of mathematics instruction with small groups (often the case in studies with special populations). Results are compared for an instructional experiment with remedial and nonremedial students using a number-correct scoring and a standardized score…

S.G. Little (1997) reported the top contributors to the school psychology literature from 1987 to 1995. The present study represents a follow-up by examining the top contributors from 1996 to 2005. Similar to Little, a list of the top 50 contributors was developed using a point system that assigned more credit based on fewer coauthors and higher…