This paper describes a study that investigated the interchangeability of four different assessment methods for measuring middle-school students' understanding of science concepts. The four methods compared were hands-on tasks with associated multiple-choice and written justification items, written analogues of the hands-on tasks, and two types of…

The assumptions that high-stakes testing is useful in raising educational standards for all students and that higher standards lead to higher educational performance for all students have not been tested in schools along the Texas border with Mexico. This study analyzed the effects of the high-stakes testing policy on students in a small rural…

More than 275 colleges across the United States now admit some or all of their applicants without regard to Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or American College Testing Program (ACT) scores, and many say that the policy has increased both the diversity and the academic quality of their entering classes. Many lessons have been learned at schools…

This first test and technical manual explains the development, purpose, use, validity, and reliability of the criterion-referenced final examination for the Chemistry of Hazardous Materials course of the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg (Maryland). Because of possible diversity in the testing knowledge and background of readers, the manual…

The use of vocational assessment instruments with Texas special needs students was investigated as part of the requirements of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act. A nonrandom sampling method was used to identify the population. Transition from School to Work Coordinators in each of 20 regions collected 130 completed survey instruments…

This study assessed whether the Academic Misconduct Survey (AMS) can distinguish groups of teacher education students relative to their propensity toward various forms of misconduct. Focus was on identifying clusters of persons within each school who had a propensity toward the various academic misconduct constructs. The AMS includes 41…

The relationship between general cognitive ability and both training and job performance is reviewed. Existing scientific data show that there are large differences in training achievement and in job performance. Consequently, any good predictor of achievement or performance can yield a large gain in workforce productivity. General cognitive…

Textbooks that have been and are being used by students in education and psychology to learn about statistical testing are reviewed. Twenty-eight textbooks published prior to 1950 were reviewed. These textbooks were found to focus on descriptive methods, to concentrate on educational testing, and to present limited formal statistical formulation.…

Work on the development of history performance assessments is described. So far, six complete sets of assessments in United States history have been developed as part of this project. Students are first assessed on their historical knowledge of the period through a short-answer test. They are then asked to write an essay explaining the positions…

Since the authorization of the use of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) through the Trial State Assessment to provide state-based data, debate over the proposed expansion of the NAEP has strengthened. To assist states in analyzing and interpreting 1990 data on eighth-grade mathematics and to assist in planning subsequent NAEP…

The Admissions Testing Program of the College Board consists of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the Test of Standard Written English (TSWE), the Student Descriptive Questionnaire (SDQ), and the Achievement Tests. By registering for the tests and completing the SDQ, students provide information about themselves and their schools for their own…

The effect of alternating criterion-referenced tests (CRTs) with norm-referenced tests (NRTs) when evaluating schools was studied in a sample of 242 Louisiana public elementary schools accounting for over 18,000 third graders tested in 1989. The study used five separate multiple regression models, each producing studentized residuals used as…

The "Survey of Undergraduate Alumni" and the "Survey of Graduate Alumni" for the Department of Health Education at San Francisco State University (California) were developed and evaluated. The surveys were intended to measure alumni satisfaction with the programs in health education. Using a modified Delphi technique, a group…

Because of concerns about the validity of tests used in education and employment, a consultation on June 16, 1989, focused on tests of ability, achievement, and other skills. Invited experts were asked to address a set of issues common to both education and employment testing, primarily related to test construction procedures and how to establish…

A review of the recent literature has yielded a number of concerns about the validity, reliability, cost, efficiency, generalizability, utility, and cultural sensitivity of performance based assessments. The resulting conclusion was that continuing the performance based assessment initiative should be rethought. Suggested alternatives included…