Praxis III is an assessment procedure that provides information for making instructional and licensing decisions about beginning teachers. The Praxis III Assessor's job is to interview the beginning teacher, observe the teacher in the classroom, score the teacher's performance on 19 criteria, and summarize the evidence for each score. The Assessor…

A study examined Maryland high school teachers' attitudes toward specific individual characteristics of the Maryland Writing Test as well as their overall attitudes toward the test. Subjects, 538 English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies teachers in Maryland's 176 public high schools, responded to a survey designed to elicit…

This document, part of a series of papers which describe the assessment of student learning in various school curriculum areas from prekindergarten through grade 12, focuses on the assessment of student learning in fine arts education. After an overview of current curriculum goals in fine arts education, subsequent sections describe…

This guidebook is designed to help teachers think about the important role of assessment in guiding students' narrative writing, with an emphasis on the close connections among curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The assessments that are given as examples stem from a long-term collaboration between the Center for Research on Evaluation,…

The essays in this collection are the products of work by more than 100 teachers in the Hudson Valley Portfolio Assessment Project. Teachers spent 3 years learning about, experimenting with, and reflecting on their uses of assessment and its relations to student achievement. In the opening three essays, Giselle Martin-Kniep discusses what she…

This book reviews alternative assessment. Suggestions include portfolios, interviews, observations, journals, and tests utilizing various rubrics. This book contains suggestions and materials that teachers can use to assess students' progress in problem solving, reasoning, and communication. Many performance tasks and problem-specific rubrics for…

This book is designed to help teachers, especially secondary school teachers, create and use performance assessments. The basic concept is that teachers must plan backwards from outcomes of education to shift the paradigm of curriculum-instruction-testing to a new and more fluid design. The book presents a wide variety of assessment approaches…

This book is a guide to the development and use of performance tasks and rubrics in the upper elementary school mathematics classroom. It contains a rationale for, and a discussion of strengths and limitations of, performance tasks to assess student achievement and progress in mathematics. A field-tested process is offered for developing…

Teachers' reactions to the administration and scoring of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program tests (MSPAP) were studied, focusing on their direct and indirect exposure to tasks and evaluative criteria through the experience of scoring the MSPAP. Since its inception in 1991, the MSPAP has been scored in-state by certified teachers…

Seven recommendations are made by the California Art Education Association (CAEA) for a high quality middle school visual arts program for all students in California's middle schools. The seven recommendations are: (1) a sequential middle school visual arts curriculum should be developed by art educators and focus on art as a discipline requiring…

The Mississippi Teacher Assessment Instruments (MTAI) for the evaluation of beginning teachers has been adopted by the Mississippi State Board of Education. The MTAI assesses on-the-job performance and consists of 16 competencies measured by 3 separate instruments, which are to be administered twice during the beginning teacher's first year of…

The scoring method that will be applied in the current 12th-grade science assessment project of the National Science Foundation and the Office of Educational Research and Assessment is described. The method, "graded mark-point" scoring, is modeled after procedures developed by P. Tamir for use in the performance exercises of the Israeli…

Statewide assessment programs in mathematics that have led the way in the development and implementation of new alternative forms of assessment are described and compared. Assessments reviewed are: (1) the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP); (2) the Maine Educational Assessment (MEA); (3) Vermont's Mathematics Portfolio Assessment…

A consortium effort sponsored by the Northwest Regional Evaluation Association has arrived at a workable definition of a portfolio that takes into account the viewpoints of teachers and those interested in large-scale assessment. The modified definition states that: "A student portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that tells…

Arguments for replacing standardized multiple choice tests with performance assessment that encourages teachers to devote more attention to higher order skills, and thus results in increased student achievement, are based on three assumptions: (1) the teaching profession, key decision makers, and parents will accept performance assessment measures…