Discusses educational performance assessment and alternative assessment practices. Currently, achievement assessment involves classical psychometrics, performance-based evaluation, and cognitive theory, which must all be invoked to improve understanding of student achievement. This article suggests developing performance tests from a coherent…

Discusses research to determine whether the methodology used in English-as-a-Second-Language classes affected scores on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills. Test results of students in a Los Angeles school district exposed to a comprehension-based approach were compared to those exposed to a grammar-based approach. (21 references) (CFM)

A mail survey about the use of instruments in 9 assessment areas was answered by 389 school psychologists. Comparison with a similar survey 10 years earlier suggests no decline in assessment overall, although emphasis is switching away from intelligence testing, toward achievement testing, behavior rating, and adaptive measurements. (SLD)

Examines the differences between norm-referenced tests (standardized assessments of intelligence, aptitude, achievement, and personality) and criterion-referenced tests. Until school districts improve their potential to develop meaningful criterion-referenced tests, norm-referenced tests will be the major yardstick for measuring student…

To explore differences and similarities in the concepts of educational indicators (performance indicators) in the United States and United Kingdom, three pairs of speakers from each country were invited to prepare papers and deliver their partner's paper. Achievement indicators, inspections/site visits, and performance indicators in school…

Discusses assessment of student learning and teacher autonomy in the United Kingdom, describing two projects in which collaborating teachers developed criteria for assessing student performance. These criteria, compared to those devised by examination boards, indicated a need for better, quicker feedback, pupil self-assessment, and teacher…

Normative and psychometric properties of a recently developed teacher checklist, the Academic Performance Rating Scale (APRS), were studied using 493 urban elementary school children (251 males and 242 females). The APRS was a reliable and valid source of information about the quality of a student's academic performance and behavior. (SLD)

The Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised is a set of tests designed to measure cognitive abilities, scholastic aptitude, and achievement in the areas of reading, mathematics, and written language, in individuals aged 2-95 years. This paper describes the test battery's administration, scoring, standardization, reliability, and…

Offers a report on Visions for Children--an early childhood demonstration program with the goal of facilitating intellectual development and academic achievement and enhancing self-concepts of African-American preschoolers. Base-line data from the first two phases of child testing comparing program participants and control group children is…

Examines selected factors associated with classroom climate (satisfaction, friction, competition, difficulty, cohesiveness) as perceived by fourth-grade students and explores the relationship between those factors and student academic achievement in the areas of reading, math, and language. Findings indicate that climate plays a relatively minor…

This study of Third International Mathematics and Science Study results addresses the issue of resource availability in rural and urban Australian schools, considering student attitudes toward math and science and career aspirations. Rural schools are more adequately resourced than urban ones. Students' attitudes and aspirations positively affect…

In "The Manufactured Crisis," D. Berliner and B. Biddle argue that there has been no decline in achievement test scores, that today's students outperform their parents and do well in international examinations, and that the supposed crisis in American education does not exist. This review refutes all these claims. (SLD)

In their arguments that there is actually no crisis in American education and that students are achieving more than previous generations, David Berliner and Bruce Biddle have ignored or dismissed extensive data on student achievement that demonstrate the failings of the American system. (SLD)

Surveys parents, students, teachers, and administrators in one Ohio school district about Senate Bill 55, which prohibits promoting to fifth grade any fourth grade student who fails the fourth grade proficiency test. Argues that legislators determined what is best for students without educators' input, and that the public still has a lot to learn…

This chapter analyzes whether Hispanics and Hispanic immigrants in the City University of New York system have the same levels of access and achievement as other racial and ethnic populations. (Contains 3 tables.)