In Canada today there is a clear move toward a more outcomes-based education system. This report examines the state of high school student assessment and reviews standards and accountability strategies. It reports on the policies, programs, and initiatives in all provincial ministries or departments of education and a sample of school boards…

This publication reports the results of the second International Assessment of Educational Progress for science. Twenty countries assessed the mathematics and science achievement of 13-year-old students and 14 countries assessed 9-year-old students in these same subjects. In some cases, participants assessed virtually all age-eligible children in…

In designing the learning process for the comprehensive high school, close attention must be paid to curriculum development, instruction, and assessment. Curriculum theorists have identified definitions of curriculum, forces affecting curriculum adoption, and conceptions of curriculum that provide a framework for a definition of curriculum…

Some of the deficiencies and abuses associated with past testing practices are reviewed, and some of the present and future possibilities for educational assessment are explored. At this time, assessment and testing in American schools are caught between the rhetoric of reform and the intransigence of long-established practices. Use of measurement…

This report gives the results of the Primary Assessment Program (PAP) in Aboriginal schools (Australia) for the 1987 school year. The purpose of PAP is to provide instructional feedback on student achievement in reading and mathematics and to provide indicators of performance for public reporting. All Aboriginal schools which had students in grade…

Authentic assessment, as referred to in this book, encompasses meaningful tasks, positive interaction between teachers and students, methods that emphasize higher-order thinking skills, and strategies that allow students to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning. Most important, authentic assessment means helping students to apply and…

The Center for the Study of Evaluation Systems Project focuses on assessing the costs and impacts of managing testing, evaluation, and instructional (T/E/I) systems through a collection of nine papers: (1) "School District Evaluation Offices: Are They Worth the Money?," by Richard C. Williams and Pam McGranahan; (2) "How Two…

Perspectives concerning college admissions and the transition to postsecondary education are analyzed, based on June 1982 hearings and discussions held in Chicago, Illinois, for the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Issues addressed in the public hearing include: (1) the relationship between declining enrollments and admissions…

Information on teaching techniques, student evaluation, and campus resources is presented for new teaching assistants. Topics include: lecturing, leading discussion sessions (especially in the humanities and social sciences), teaching the laboratory section, teaching a section of a course, teaching a foreign language, office hours, and use of the…

A descriptive study outlined the approaches used in the assessment of student performance in technical/practical subjects (e.g., agriculture, home economics, and woodworking) in Zimbabwe secondary schools. Eight schools participated in the study. Data on techniques used to evaluate student performance were collected by questionnaires received from…

Most of the criticism of Australian schools focuses on students' skills in literacy and numeracy. This study assessed levels of student achievement in Victoria's primary and secondary schools in 1988 in some key areas of literacy and numeracy. This report maps the performances of students in Years 5 and 9 on scales of development in mathematics,…

Several issues should be considered in selecting assessment instruments and procedures for use in adult literacy programs. Teachers must consider the purpose of the assessment; the appropriateness of the assessment instrument for adults; the reliability, validity, and practicality of the instrument; whether the assessment is culturally sensitive;…

Two reforms are suggested as ways to improve standardized testing. They are Truth-in-Testing legislation and the Golden Rule bias reduction principle. Test publishers, state departments of education, and colleges who administer tests are often reluctant to provide statistical data on test results. It is also difficult for researchers to see test…

In 1990, a study was conducted to compare the College Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST) passing rates of St. Petersburg Junior College (SPJC) students with those of other Florida community college students and students from state universities. The SPJC samples consisted of 756 students who took the CLAST for the first time in October 1989 and…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) currently tests seventeen-year-old students enrolled in public and private secondary schools, but it does not test "out-of-school" seventeen-year-olds who have either graduated or dropped out. Estimating that one of five seventeen-year-olds is out of school, the interpretability of…