Notes impact of high-stakes language arts assessments on teachers in Georgia rural districts. Provides additional support for what many English teachers already believe--that rich classroom discussion, reading from a variety of texts, student-centered writing assignments, and metacognitive awareness of one's reading and writing strategies…

Introduces the symposium that explores the 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) arts assessment. Provides information on NAEP, the arts assessment, and its importance; a discussion on the results of the arts assessment; and interpretations and implications of the results. Offers suggestions for arts advocacy. (CMK)

A 3-factor solution of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised (WAIS-R) in 260 adults with suspected head injury suggested relatively good construct validity for the factors, based on correlations with neuropsychological tests. Findings are discussed in terms of the multidimensional nature of neuropsychological tests and WAIS-R factors.…

Examines the response of one high school to three of the explicit aims of the Kentucky writing portfolio assessment. Suggests limitations to the presumed validity of the assessment by revealing some of the intended and unintended consequences of the state's attempt to use the assessment to shape school writing programs, to encourage classroom…

Studied whether student scores on standardized tests represent reasonable measures of instructional quality using ratings by 10 parents and 11 educators (school principals) of the degree to which test items from a nationally marketed standardized achievement test represent the content actually taught. On average, raters felt that test items…

Examined significance of PCAT scores, prepharmacy GPA, math and science GPA, and attainment of a previous college degree in predicting first-year pharmacy GPA. Asserts that the best predictive model incorporated all variables, while the most parsimonious model included math and science GPA and the PCAT chemistry subscore. The PCAT was a…

Discusses what the term "High-Stakes Testing" means; concerns about high-stakes testing; whether testing is an important part of good educational design; why using tests for high-stakes decisions causes problems; whether test scores improve when high-stakes assessment is mandated; and ways to help states monitor student success in the curriculum.…

Discusses what the term "High-Stakes Testing" means; concerns about high-stakes testing; whether testing is an important part of good educational design; why using tests for high-stakes decisions causes problems; whether test scores improve when high-stakes assessment is mandated; and ways to help states monitor student success in the curriculum.…

We examine the equivalence of two construct-a-concept-map techniques: construct-a-map with created linking phrases (C), and construct-a-map with selected linking phrases (S). The former places few constraints on the respondent and has been considered the gold standard; the latter is cost and time efficient. Both their products and processes are…

The author was asked to address the future of the field of learning disabilities (LD) from the perspective of a director of one of the five Institutes for Research on Learning Disabilities (IRLD) funded by the Office of Special Education Programs more than 25 years ago. The theme of each of the Institutes differed; the Minnesota IRLD focused on…

Because of the perceived lack of youth physical fitness and/or concerns for increased obesity, physical education teachers are interested in youth fitness and physical activity levels. Statewide mandates are being developed that require school-based teachers to complete physical fitness testing. Data from the nationally representative School…

Contrasts between constructed response items and stem-equivalent multiple-choice counterparts typically have involved averaging item characteristics, and this aggregation has masked differences in statistical properties at the item level. Moreover, even aggregated format differences have not been explained in terms of differential cognitive…

This project explored the possible applications of new technology to standardized testing. Because the multimedia approach is particularly promising for music, the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) music test was chosen as the context for this project. The basic system for administering the test and recording the results was written using…

The "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education are intended to provide a comprehensive basis for evaluating tests. This digest identifies key standards applicable to most test…

The research literature provides important guidance to counselors working to keep abreast of the latest thinking regarding best practices and recently developed counseling tools. The purpose of this digest is to highlight a few errors that seem to recur within the literature, and to provide some helpful references that further explore these…