This book analyzes and discusses what is currently known about the benefits and costs of assessment programs for institutions of higher education. It is designed to provide a framework that can be applied by both institutional and state-level academic administrators as they consider which kinds of assessment approaches best fit their own needs and…

An overview is presented of current issues in the assessment of gifted and talented persons, with an emphasis on generalizable and universal talents and the operational methods used in their identification. The Chinese were seeking out talented individuals through formal identification procedures as early as 2200 BC. In the Western world, the use…

The Survey of Testing Practices was administered to 470 undergraduate students at Pepperdine University and the Univesity of California Los Angeles. The items concerned testing practices in three or four classes taken the previous term: type of test, test administration, class size, procedures for returning tests, test difficulty, and observed…

Public education in British Columbia has been profoundly affected by replacement of Ministry-appointed superintendents with those locally employed and by eligibility of applicants other than former superintendents for the positions of deputy minister and assistant deputy minister. The single greatest influence in increasing awareness of…

Bronfenbrenner's ecological paradigm is well suited for research on school effectiveness. Criteria for identifying effective schools should be thought of as indicators of learning occurring in a context of school practices and other influences. Use of the term "outcomes" implies a linear cause and effect relationship between school…

Since 1969 the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has conducted annual assessments to determine, in the language of the current legislation, "the performance of children and young adults in the basic skills of reading, mathematics and communications" and to "report data periodically on changes in the knowledge and…

The evolution and administration of testing to measure student progress through a required undergraduate bibliographic instruction course (Library 160) at Iowa State University are described. Bibliographic instruction began at the university in 1890. Through 1958 all colleges within the university received a noncredit required course in library…

Prior to 1979, DeKalb Community College (DCC) developed placement levels from Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores as criteria for admissions to degree-granting programs. When this procedure proved inadequate for degree admissions and student placement, DCC began generating placement levels on the basis of the Reading, English, and Mathematics…

Although most instructors are solely responsible for the evaluation and grading of students, they rarely receive formalized training in test construction or other forms of evaluation. Evaluating highly motivated students in very small classes is a rather uncomplicated procedure; however, evaluating large classes in which students have a range of…

This Digest overviews legal challenges in five areas of test use for decision-making in schools: ability tracking, placement in special education classes, test scores as college admissions criteria, test disclosure, and teacher competency testing. Cases illustrating these challenges are described and include: Hobson v. Hansen (1967), Moses v.…

This ERIC Digest discusses implications derived from the final report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, "A Nation at Risk." The first implication is a motivational one for measurement specialists: it is an ego-booster. The report is replete with results yielded from various testing programs, the fruit of the…

The Lansing Community College (LCC) Math Lab offers two arithmetic and two developmental algebra courses and provides a placement and proficiency testing program for the mathematics department and for other selected departments in the college. Students who participate in Math Lab courses: (1) take a placement test and/or have a placement interview…

This paper reports the results of a survey conducted in the spring of l981 that was designed to collect and summarize guidelines on appropriate test use from the various organizations, agencies, and associations involved in standardized educational testing. The primary objective of the study was to learn how these various groups define the issues…

The purpose of this paper is to give an account of the history of the Canadian Service for Admission to College and University (SACU) and to discuss its services, its present crisis, and its possible reorientation, bearing in mind the fact that West Germany is about to establish a similar admissions service. (Author/RK)