Oral reading fluency is a good predictor of performance on state reading assessments. The present study addressed the issue of bias by examining whether oral reading fluency scores differentially predict performance on a state reading assessment and the Metropolitan Achievement Tests, 7th Edition (MAT/7) across economic and racial groups.…

This "Guide" is intended for staff developers and assessment planners already familiar with current educational assessment reform. Performance assessment means measuring the growth or achievement of one student's performance against an established set of standards for quality, the "performance standards." Students usually…

The National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) is a partnership of the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Stanford University, The RAND Corporation, the University of Pittsburgh, the Educational Testing Service, and the University of California, Santa Barbara.…

Sample undercoverage issues in the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) are addressed. The main focus is the exclusion of certain categories of student in the base year, 1988, and in in-school follow-up rounds. A subsidiary focus is the question of how adequately transfer students were captured within the sampling procedures of…

This book contains necessary information to help teachers deal with the assessment concerns of classroom teachers. The major theme is that classroom assessment should help teachers make better educational decisions. Each chapter contains several elements intended to foster mastery of its contents, including a summary of contents, a more succinct…

The Assessment and Intervention Model for the Bilingual Exceptional Student (AIM for the BESt) was designed as a comprehensive service delivery system to help school districts address the educational needs of language minority students. The model incorporates prereferral intervention, assessment, and intervention strategies. Implementation of the…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if a model for identifying gifted and talented students could be developed which would provide equal access to gifted programs for children of all ethnic and economic backgrounds. The culturally and ethnically diverse San Diego City School District provided a pool of over 35,000 children referred…

Thirteen papers are presented that discuss issues in public personnel decision making, specifically in the area of personnel selection. After an introduction by James P. Springer, the following papers are presented: (1) "History of Employment Testing" (Matthew Hale); (2) "Job Families: A Review and Discussion of Their Implications for Personnel…

This review of the literature, litigation, and legislation summarizes special education classification patterns for children with disabilities in the rural Southeast. Focus is particularly on those socially constructed and culture bound disabilities (such as specific learning disabilities (SLD), educable mental retardation (EMR), and mild…

The military has responded to recent demographic projections by upgrading its literacy standards: almost 95 percent of new recruits are high school graduates. In order to maintain its high recruitment standard, the military relies heavily on a standardized test, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Those who have not graduated from high…

Two reforms are suggested as ways to improve standardized testing. They are Truth-in-Testing legislation and the Golden Rule bias reduction principle. Test publishers, state departments of education, and colleges who administer tests are often reluctant to provide statistical data on test results. It is also difficult for researchers to see test…

In a study of the detection of test item bias, Chinese speakers and Spanish speakers were administered a measure of pronunciation accuracy for the (d) and (z) morphemes. Six indices were calculated for each item: item difficulty, point biserial correlation coefficient, item variance, chi-square, Rasch logit of difficulty, and the average…

This paper contains a comparison of descriptive information based on analyses of pilot and live administrations of the Alabama High School Graduation Examination (AHSGE). The test is composed of three subject tests: Reading, Mathematics, and Language. The study was intended to validate the test development procedure by comparing difficulty levels…

The methodological implications of using instructional information combined with the usual test item responses are discussed as they affect the linkage of achievement measurement and instruction. Models that expand those of standard Item Response Theory (IRT) are illustrated using achievement data from the United States sample of the Second…

This paper challenges the theoretical knowledge base upon which the Canadian separate special education delivery system has been developed. Arguments for integration of special needs children into the mainstream of education are presented from a social-ethical, educational-psychological, and legal-legislative perspective. Examination of the…