It has been recommended that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) specify comprehensive exercise domains to measure academic achievement, and provide a national item pool to measure the objectives in these domains. These domain specifications and item pools would serve to satisfy the increasing demand for valid, accurate, and…

The Canadian Education Association sponsored a study to review and synthesize the literature on student evaluation; investigate changes in goals and methods; and make recommendations for improvement. Interviews were conducted in six provinces with administrative personnel, principals, and teachers. Employers and post-secondary institutions, as…

The proceedings include: (1) "Communicative Competence Reconsidered," by M. Doushaq; (2) "Scenarios for Enhancing Communicative Competence," by G. Salah; (3) "Oral Style Strategies in EFL Written Discourse: Implications for Teaching College Composition," by O. Atari; (4) "Arabic and English Imperative Structures," by M. Anani; (5) "Simplification…

School effectiveness indices (SEIs), based on regressing test performance onto earlier test performance and a socioeconomic status measure, were obtained for eight subject-grade combinations from 485 South Carolina elementary schools. The analysis involved school means based on longitudinally matched student data. Reading and mathematics…

This is the fifth volume in an annual series reporting on the Rochester City School District's Data Base, originated in 1981-82. The recent edition of the Data Base is meant to serve two purposes: (1) to present a core of relevant information about the District, including information on enrollment, achievement and attendance; and (2) to provide an…

During 1985-86 the Division of Special Education of the New York Board of Education operated a Chapter 1/P.S.E.N. Remedial Reading and Mathematics Program which served approximately 11,500 English-speaking and limited English Proficient (LEP) students. Of these, 9,627 received reading instruction alone, and 119 received remedial instruction in…

This review of literature from the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database is the second volume on the topic of testing and assessment for the counseling professional; the first volume was published in 1979. The sections on minimum competency tests identify issues of current interest, e.g., the basic issue of definition; the…

In anticipation of the base-year survey of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), a field test of the questionnaire and test items was conducted in 1987. NELS:88 is a national, longitudinal study designed to provide trend data about the critical transitions of young people as they develop, attend school, and enter the work…

Uses of assessment in postsecondary education and policy issues are considered. In higher education, assessment is used to refer to at least six separate but overlapping activities: (1) multiple measures to track students' intellectual and personal growth over an extended period of time; (2) state-mandated requirements for evaluating students…

In order to extend its usefulness in District planning, the contents of the Rochester data-base have been expanded over the compilation of 1982-83, and its format and content improved. The focus of attention is on districtwide trends rather than on individual school analysis. In order to encourage interpretation by those interested in District…

The paper reports some of the results of a preliminary survey of the language proficiency of matriculation students of French in Britain and Australia. The technique used (especially the use of Chief Examiners' reports) is justified and the deficiencies that exist in current matriculation examinations are noted. In particular, the examinations are…

This volume presents descriptions of the thirty-seven sites and Title VII projects included in the study designed to determine the impact of bilingual education on students in the cognitive and affective domains in a nationally representative sample of Spanish/English bilingual projects funded through Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary…

This memorandum reports the validation of the SCRDT Tests for Teachers in Spanish/English Bilingual Education Programs. The tests, which are designed for elementary and secondary teachers and aides, measure knowledge of methods used in teaching English as a second language (ESL), teaching Spanish as a second language (SSL), and teaching reading in…

This thirteenth of 14 curriculum modules in the Family and Community Services Occupational Education Modules series deals with death and dying. It helps the student to be aware of different kinds of death, stages of emotion, and attitudes toward death. Students have opportunities also to express their own feelings. The role of community…

This primer is an introduction to item response theory (also called item characteristic curve theory, or latent trait theory) as it is used most commonly--for scoring multiple choice achievement or aptitude tests. Written for the testing practitioner with minimum training in statistics and psychometrics, it presents and illustrates the basic…