Studies have suggested that the presence of individual differences in children's ability to detect social contingencies may be related to their behavioral characteristics, as a result of cumulative transactions with their physical and social environments. This study sought to identify behavioral characteristics associated with children's ability…

Large-scale testing programs are generally based on the assumptions that the test-takers experience standard conditions for taking the test and that everyone will do his or her own work without having prior knowledge of specific questions. These assumptions are not necessarily true. The ways students and educators use to get around standardizing…

The cognitive styles of 40 children (ages 8-17) with serious emotional disturbance (SED) were investigated via their performance on Planning-Attention-Simultaneous-Successive (PASS) model tasks as represented by the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (CAS). In the study, the children with SED and 40 typical children were administered the 14…

In England and Wales, a National Curriculum initiated in 1988 was designed to ensure that all schools provided a curriculum which represented different areas of knowledge. The past 20 years has increasingly seen more emphasis on the link between the financial amounts spent on education and subsequent return on this money. The impact of the…

The Bay Area Comer Development Program's "Readiness Five Phase Plan" was developed to bring the school sites involved in the Bay Area School Development Program (SDP) closer to the mission and goals of the program. To achieve this, a readiness assessment and checklists are used to determine if a site is ready to engage in the program. An…

A new assessment conception is described that integrates constructed-response testing, artificial intelligence, and model-based measurement. The conception incorporates complex constructed-response items for their potential to increase the validity, instructional utility, and credibility of standardized tests. Artificial intelligence methods are…

One of the mandates of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 is that students develop a writing portfolio. Ultimately, schools must elevate the average performance level of students' portfolios to the benchmark of "proficient." During site visits to 29 schools, 34 indicators were identified that differentiated writing scores and…

The focus of this study was on the validity and feasibility of test accommodation strategies on a small-scale level. Both limited English proficiency (LEP) students and non-LEP students were tested under accommodated and nonaccommodated conditions and their performance was compared. The study was conducted in two public school districts and at…

Recently, training efforts have been undertaken to reduce the negative outcomes associated with increased verbal aggressiveness and accentuate the positive outcomes associated with increased argumentativeness within adolescent populations. This paper presents both positive and negative aspects of assessing aggressive communication predispositions…

This volume contains essays related to various aspects of higher education, focusing on both educational theory and research. The chapters are: (1) "Apologia pro Vita Mia" (Robert Berdahl); (2) "Varieties of Validity: Quality in Qualitative Research" (Yvonna S. Lincoln); (3) "Academic Freedom and Federal Courts in the 1990s: The Legitimation of…

Analysis of secondary data was used as a way to inform the researcher about the trends in her assessment practices over a 4-year period. This was an important initial step in an effort to develop and integrate high-quality classroom assessment tasks and make sense of assessment information for decision making. Scores from 26 groups of graduate and…

Curriculum-based assessment (CBA) and curriculum-based measurement (CBM) procedures are increasingly being utilized to assess student academic skills for educational decision-making, including screening, progress monitoring, entitlement and intervention planning. At the same time, school districts are increasingly compelled to administer local and…

Recent reports of high levels of achievement on the Regents examinations in New York state and relatively poor showing on the eighth grade examinations have led many to speculate that the eighth grade examinations lack good predictive properties with respect to the Regents examinations. There are many problems with arriving at such a conclusion,…

This study investigated the effectiveness of the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) for assessing the functioning of youth with mental disorders. The CAFAS is a multidimensional tool used to record the extent to which a youth's mental health disorder is disruptive of functioning in each of five psycho-social areas: role…

The purpose of this document is to provide practical guidance and support for the design, development, and implementation of large-scale assessment systems that are grounded in research and best practice. Information is included about existing large-scale testing efforts, including national testing programs, state testing programs, and…