Growth toward the goals of the mindful school requires new and more authentic and appropriate forms of assessment. This volume describes a wide range of alternative forms of assessment, presenting them in a meaningful and practical format so that they can be applied in classrooms. Having a range of strategies for assessment allows for the…

This annual report, which provides information on the status of Pre-K through 12 education in Iowa, is divided into six basic sections: preface, enrollments, staff, programs, student performance, and school finance. The preface provides context by describing Iowa's changing demographic, economic, and social landscape. Each section presents summary…

Approximately 225 classroom teachers representing 97 randomly selected Ohio school districts participated in this study. They were selected as being most able to accurately inform researchers of their districts' standardized testing practices. Responding to a mailed survey, these teachers rated their schools regarding the extent of use and the…

The first of two hearings held in the winter and spring of 1991 to consider the reauthorization of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement focused on the question of national testing. The proposed legislation stipulates that a national test would measure an individual's educational achievement, give the local education agency an…

1988 is the eighth year of the Arizona Pupil Achievement Testing Program which is administered to fulfill the requirements of Arizona Revised Statutes Section 15-741 through Section 15-744. This legislation mandates that a nationally standardized norm-referenced achievement test be administered during April to all pupils enrolled in Arizona public…

Standardized test scores are used to determine outcomes at national, state, and local school district levels; and teachers feel pressure to raise their students' scores on high stakes tests. This study evaluated score enhancing strategies most likely used by student teachers and their perceptions about the degree of appropriateness of these…

A democratic model of educational evaluation and some policy recommendations to develop culturally appropriate evaluation are presented. The traditional hard science paradigm in research must be replaced with evaluation designed to feed back to communities of varying cultural backgrounds. The most fundamental assumption of the new model is…

Across the field of educational assessment the case has been made for alternatives to the multiple-choice item type. Most of the alternative types of items require a subjective evaluation by a rater. The reliability of this subjective rating is a key component of these types of alternative items. In this paper, measures of reliability are…

Recent years have seen a new and serious commitment to improving methods of assessing academic performance. Schools, school districts, and states are experimenting with a wide range of assessment alternatives. This paper is about this new commitment to assessment and begins with some background on standardized tests because the rationale for…

This book discusses the crusade for educational excellence since the early 1980s. It argues that the reform movement has failed to adequately address the extraordinary degree of alienation and apathy among secondary school students and teachers, and the schools' contribution to the problem, i.e., there exists a human element of the education…

This outline and bibliography is designed to acquaint candidates and educators with the Certified Professional Secretary (CPS) Examination. The outline indicates the areas in which secretaries should possess knowledge, skill, understanding, and judgment. It is divided into the three parts that comprise the examination: finance and business law…

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…

A semester-long study examined the assessment instruments and techniques currently being used by companies participating in the Wisconsin Workplace Partnership Training Program (WWPTP). Twenty-four instruments that may be categorized as either standardized tests, competency-based and criterion-reference measures, or participatory assessment…

The purpose of this research was to investigate whether teachers' attitudes toward specific test preparation, whether they saw administration practices such as cheating, and the amount of pressure they felt to increase standardized test scores predicted teachers' test preparation and administration practices. Using the theory of personal action of…

Results of standardized tests taken by students in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District are reported. Emphasis is on tests developed for the state of Texas, but results from other standardized tests are also reported. In October 1990, 22,443 students in grades 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 took the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS),…