In 1986 the Kentucky General Assembly passed legislation directing the Legislative Research Commission to appoint a special subcommittee, the Special Subcommittee on Essential Skills Testing, to study the Kentucky Essential Skills Testing Program (KEST) and to make recommendations concerning the program. This report presents the findings and…

Political and legislative pressures have posed a number of measurement issues and challenges to the development of sound, valid voluntary national tests (VNTs). This paper focuses on what appear to be the most difficult technical issues related to the VNT proposed by President Clinton in 1997. Technical issues refer to psychometric issues, as…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has conducted state assessments in 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1996. At present, after the fourth round of state assessments, it is clear that the program is generally successful. A survey of state testing directors indicates that the NAEP has considerable credibility as a valid and reliable source…

Clear communication with parents about educational reform issues and the implementation of standards is essential. This publication presents ideas for state leaders on how better to inform parents about statewide assessments and how to report the results of these assessments to parents so that the results are more meaningful. The first section…

As part of a major effort to raise student achievement, Colorado schools have been putting into place rigorous academic content standards that spell out the skills and knowledge students should acquire in core subject areas. This guide contains information about part of this effort, the new Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP), to help…

The new Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) was developed to provide a measurement of how well students and schools are meeting Colorado's academic content standards. The CSAP tests are not norm-referenced showing how much a student has learned in comparison with other students. Instead, they are based on the state's content standards.…

With the passage of Article 31, Rhode Island set out to transform the state's education system. This report is the first annual analysis of the work catalyzed by Article 31. Section 1 briefly outlines the events leading to this historic initiative. Section 2 describes the 1996-97 student assessment results, which are the baseline against which…

This document consists of seven policy issue papers developed by the Connecticut Early Childhood Education Council, an action-oriented coalition of statewide organizations concerned with early childhood education. Members include teachers, school administrators, children's librarians, child care providers, Head Start directors, State Department of…

The 15 tests described in this bibliography assess knowledge of and proficiency in Spanish as a foreign language. Tests for bilingual or Spanish-speaking populations are not included. Most of the tests are geared toward students at the secondary or college level. Among the areas assessed are listening comprehension, reading comprehension,…

Information on student achievement and personnel data is contained in this annual report of Columbus, Ohio, Public Schools for 1989-90. Section 1 offers a report on districtwide student achievement data. Eleven tables present mathematics, language, and reading scores and compare them to national averages. The second section presents three tables…

As part of the National Evaluation Program of the Swedish school system, proficiency in the English language is evaluated for students in grade 5 (at age 12 years). Variation between classes and variation within classes were studied in a multilevel factor analysis (MFA) using a sample of 3,162 students in 162 classes for whom student questionnaire…

Designed to aid in Chapter 1 evaluation efforts, this bibliography provides information about types of tests and other measures designed to assess young children. Bibliographic summaries were based on information from publishers' manuals and scholarly reviews. Criteria for including a test in the bibliography were that the test: (1) was designed…

To help Education Consolidation and Improvement Act Chapter 1 personnel work more effectively with test publishers, a survey was conducted of selected publishers of norm-referenced tests commonly used by Chapter 1 Local Educational Agencies (LEAs). The test publishers included: (1) CTB/McGraw-Hill; (2) The Psychological Corporation; (3) the…

This technical report describes the development of the College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), an instrument designed to measure Florida college students' achievement of the computation and communication skills expected by the completion of their sophomore year. Section I covers CLAST's background and purpose, the requirement that all students…

The Dallas Independent School District presents longitudinal trends in achievement test scores of students tested in each of its subdistricts from 1976 to 1982. Forms 5, 7, and 8 of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were administered. What the quasi-longitudinal and cohort-longitudinal test scores together affirm is that median scores have…