Britain's Associated Examining Board for the General Certificate of Education believes that an examination taken by adults should provide room for the use of experience. The article provides two examples of the Board's courses illustrating that policy: "Living Decisions" (based on a BBC series) and "English Language for Mature…

Suggests ways of bringing "sanity" to standardized testing. For instance, no standardized test should ever be administered for purposes of establishing scholastic pecking orders, and the agency that administers a standardized test must determine the relationship between measured ability and measured achievement. (Author/IRT)

This study attempts to answer two questions: (1) How does the written English syntax of black, white, Indian and Spanish-American children in the intermediate grades differ? and (2) How does the tested language ability of these children differ? Concludes with a brief list of differences for teacher use in the classroom. (Author/SDH)

A formidable national educational reform movement has developed, aimed at improving the cultural literacy of U.S. students. Ideas about the illiteracy of American students and the urgency of restoring the nation's cultural knowledge, if carried forward, have strong implications for the school curriculum at both the elementary and secondary levels…

The Maricopa Community College District's (MCCD's) Commission on Student Assessment and Initial Course Placement was formed to assess the current status of student assessment for initial course placement across the district, to review the available instruments that assess student skills for placement, to discover what other community college…

Principals and teachers involved in implementing benchmark testing in a large, urban, midwestern school district progressed from lower to higher stages of concern during the 4 years of a longitudinal study. A random sample of the teachers and all the principals in the district's 49 elementary, 9 junior high, and 10 high schools completed the…

In seeking to define and describe culturally and linguistically different exceptional (CLDE) children, common problems in distinguishing a disability from a cultural or linguistic difference are discussed. The legal mandates affecting the assessment of CLDE students are summarized. An appropriate nondiscriminatory assessment process is defined in…

Procedures used by 55 faculty in the evaluation of students in various academic areas in Indiana University were studied. The majority of respondents taught undergraduates, were male, and were experienced, full-time faculty. Business faculty used primarily essay tests and research papers, while physical science faculty used mostly objective tests,…

In an effort to assess community college students' knowledge of the liberal arts, the Center for the Study of Community Colleges developed and field tested a student survey and General Academic Assessment (GAA) instrument. The GAA was completed by a sample of 8,024 students at four large, urban community college districts. The scores were cross…

This report provides a comprehensive description and record of all academic support services provided to students through the South Plains College Learning Center. After an introductory statement clarifies the ever-increasing need for academic support services at open-door institutions, a philosophy and mission statement and a detailed description…

The advantages and disadvantages of two common grading methods are presented, and from an analysis of the virtues and vices of these prototypic methods, a set of goals or criteria for grading systems is derived. Percentage and class-curve grading systems are discussed in detail. Criteria for grading systems include the following: obtain relevant…

The Fairfax County Public schools (VA) presents Familygram, a newsletter directed to parents to help them better discuss and use test results for the improvement of their child's education and the quality of the education program in Fairfax County. An attempt is made to answer several important questions: What tests are given? Which of them are…

This manual contains guidelines for administering the Alberta, Canada, Achievement Testing Program in June 1987. The tests are administered to all students in grades 3, 6, 9, who have not been granted special exemption. The first section of the booklet includes information on the Achievement Test schedule, exemptions from the Achievement Testing…

Over a 2-year period, stability of performance on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children of 25 nonhandicapped preschool children was examined. Overall, results indicated a high level of stability for both global scale scores and subtest scores. Less stability was indicated for performance patterns and subtest strengths and weaknesses. (PCB)

Differential functioning of males and females on achievement test items was studied in a sample of 110,000 students in kindergarten through grade 12. First, item parameters and ability estimates for these parameters were obtained from LOGIST computer program runs for the entire group. Predicted performance for each item for each group was…