Beginning in February 1994, twelfth-grade students who have passed the Ohio Ninth-grade Proficiency Tests in all areas will take the Twelfth-grade Proficiency Tests in writing, reading, mathematics, and citizenship. This fact sheet describes the Twelfth-grade Proficiency Test in citizenship. The test is designed to measure a twelfth-grade level of…

This booklet contains the practice tests for the Sixth-grade Ohio Proficiency Tests. Student work on these practice tests helps the teacher evaluate how well the student understands the subjects of writing, reading, mathematics, citizenship, and science. The writing test consists of two writing tasks based on one stimulus passage, and the reading,…

Authentic evaluation of educational achievement directly measures actual performance in the subject area. Standardized multiple-choice tests, on the other hand, measure test-taking skills directly, and everything else indirectly or not at all. Also called performance assessment, appropriate assessment, alternative assessment, or direct assessment,…

This practicum was designed to improve the process used to identify kindergarten and first-grade children who are at risk for academic failure and may need to be referred for a comprehensive special education evaluation. Prior to the practicum, the screening process consisted of a curriculum-based readiness measure which failed to identify…

The ways in which assessment materials developed for the Speaking and Listening strand of the Australian English Profile have helped refine the continuum of skill growth are explored. In Australia, profiles map the progress of learning during compulsory schooling. Each profile is divided into strands representing critical areas of a learning…

An evaluation of the Early Fives program of the Farmington (Michigan) Public Schools is reported. This extra-year program began in the 1980-81 school year. By the 1982-83 school year, tuition was no longer charged, and a systematic screening effort was implemented. Each Early Fives classroom contains a maximum of 15 children with a certified…

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) were used to predict achievement (measured by the Stanford Achievement Test) for 200 students with mild handicaps, in grades K through 6 in a rural western school district. Males scored significantly higher than females for every…

For many people, school reform means taking the responsibility for goal setting away from teachers and assessing common student accomplishments, but the costs and benefits of this accountability strategy have not been determined. The difference between the aims of education represented by test scores, and those represented by the activities of the…

A new testing strategy that provides protection against the problem of having examinees in adaptive testing choose difficulty levels that are not matched to their proficiency levels was introduced and evaluated. The method, termed restricted self-adapted testing (RSAT), still provides examinees with a degree of control over the difficulty levels…

This report presents the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) performance results to state officials and the public as required by state law. Compiled in two volumes, TAAS results are aggregated and reported for the state as a whole, for education service centers and individual districts, and in district demographic groupings. This volume…

This report explores issues related to accountability in the context of Children Achieving, the school reform effort of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). The accountability system begins with content standards in English/language arts, mathematics, science, and the arts. The Stanford-9 Achievement Test has been designated to assess how students are…

The 15 chapters of this book address issues related to the continuing test score gap between black and white students. The editors argue against traditional explanations which emphasize differences in economic resources and demographic factors, and they urge that more emphasis be put on psychological and cultural factors. The book suggests studies…

This study explores methods for detecting gender-based differential item functioning (DIF) on the 12th grade multiple-choice and constructed-response science tests administered as part of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). Several combinations of conditioning variables were explored for DIF detection on both tests, and…

This evaluation documents the progress made by the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts Magnet High School (Kansas City, Missouri) during its second year of implementing the arts theme. The evaluation covers four primary areas: demographic data, implementation, perceptions, and achievement. With the entering class of ninth graders during…

This report of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) Student Performance Results lists performance results on the TAAS and the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS), an exit examination, alphabetically by school district for each grade level tested (grades 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 for the TAAS and grades 11 and 12 for the initial…