The most important aspect of competency-based education is clearly linked to Bloom's mastery learning model: the establishment of behaviors which ought to be learned and adequately performed by public school students. The main components of competency based education are: (1) establishment of student standards; (2) student testing; and (3)…

A three-year research effort was conducted to design a crime laboratory proficiency testing program encompassing the United States. The objectives were to: (1) determine the feasibility of preparation and distribution of different classes of physical evidence; (2) assess the accuracy of criminalistics laboratories in the processing of selected…

An information processing approach was applied to the development and validation of a test battery intended for personnel selection, classification, and guidance; and design of training programs. The approach specifies that tests should measure specific cognitive processes and basic abilities, rather than prior experience. Tests should be short,…

This state of the art review discusses approaches to the measurement of theological concepts, and briefly describes the purpose and limitations of selected tests in the following areas: religious knowledge (mainly biblical knowledge); theological belief; religiosity--observable religious activity; religious experience--mystical experience; and…

This paper describes an experiment that was undertaken to examine the usefulness of the cloze test as an objective measure of a native speaker's writing ability. A modified version of the cloze test used by Oller and others to measure integrative language skills in non-native speakers was given to 100 freshman English students. The test…

Minimum competency testing, in which passing a uniform test is necessary (but not sufficient) for promotion or graduation, has been carried out in a number of colleges, including the City University of New York (CUNY). Competency programs usually have three basic components: placement testing, remedial instruction, and exit testing. Competency…

A series of reports describes the activities of the Office of Research and Evaluation and compiles data descriptive of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. This report consists of four appendices, one for each of four test batteries: California Achievement Tests, Sequential Tests of Educational Progress, Boehm Tests of Basic Concepts,…

The D-48 and D-70 (Dominoes) Tests, which are parallel forms of a non-verbal, cross-cultural test, were administered to 82 college students and 112 high school freshmen. Criterion scores were obtained on the Otis Quick Score and grade point average for the college students, and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills for the ninth-graders. Results showed a…

This study investigated the predictive validity of the Teacher Performance Assessment Instruments (TPAI) using pupil gains on teacher-made tests (TMT) as a criterion. The TPAI and the TMT's were administered to 56 elementary and secondary classrooms in Georgia. Results supported the validity of the TPAI with a large number of correlations ranging…

Knowledge, curricula, and goals are implicated in some way in practically every organizational feature of schools. This paper begins with classroom activities as the most microscopic structure of interest to students of schooling processes. It progresses from there to the various forms of structure found in classrooms, to school and community…

The Mathematics Achievement Test Project (MATP) was set up by the Learning Assessment Branch of the Ministry of Education of British Columbia to develop testing materials to assist teachers throughout the province in the task of evaluating students' performance in mathematics. The two major objectives of the project were to construct "banks" of…

The point of view is presented that evaluation procedures should be more humanistic and, that where educational procedures are open or humanistic, evaluation procedures must also be humanistic in order to be isomorphically valid. A number of quotations from parents of school children are presented to support the position that the parents feel…

A four-part study was undertaken at Virginia Western Community College to determine the effectiveness of using the Cooperative English Expression Tests (CEET) and/or high school English grades to place students in English 111 (Eng 111) or Developmental English 01 (Dev Eng 01). During Winter 1976, all students (N=110) enrolled in Dev Eng 01 were…

An overview is presented of a performance-based assessment system, Teacher Performance Assessment Instruments (TPAI), developed by the Teacher Assessment Project at the University of Georgia to measure competencies of beginning teachers for initial professional certification. To clearly separate the preparation and certification functions within…

Curricular analyses, written by experienced teachers and experts, of the 1978 Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress (IIEP) results, and teacher expectations regarding mathematics are presented. A random sample of 7,200 Illinois students within 360 schools (grades 4, 8, 11) were tested; results reflected their educational performance on the…