According to the Medical Council of Malawi, one of the conditions for a licence to be granted to an individual who wants to practise medicine in Malawi is the practitioner's ability to speak and write English fluently. This means that the expatriate medical practitioner is not required by law to demonstrate fluency in Chichewa (the national…

Analysis of the university careers of students who are training to become primary school teachers has shown that a certain number have real difficulty in passing examinations in the scientific and methodological fields. This paper uses both objective and subjective data to analyse the levels of competence in this cultural field, and the propensity…

Providing detailed, constructive and helpful feedback is an important contribution to effective student learning. Quality assurance is also required to ensure consistency across all students and reduce error rates. However, with increasing workloads and student numbers these goals are becoming more difficult to achieve. An automated feedback…

This report synthesizes the results of activities of the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) focused on determining whether secondary data analysis of state and/or national data collection programs could produce policy-relevant reports on the status of children and youth with disabilities. The report describes methodology and findings…

This report documents the design and data analysis procedures of the Trial State Assessment Program of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Today the NAEP is the only survey using advanced plausible values methodology that uses a multiple imputation procedure in a psychometric context. The 1990 Trial State Assessment collected…

This report is a summary of a May 1994 meeting on the participation of students with disabilities in statewide assessment programs. The report reviews the background of the meeting, states the issues addressed, and summarizes the major points of agreement reached. A set of recommendations is offered for making participation and accommodation…

Using matched pairs of geography questions, a new testing method for machine-scored fill-in-the-blank, multiple-digit testing (MDT) questions was compared to the traditional multiple-choice (MC) style. Data were from 118 matched or parallel test items for 4 tests from 764 college students of geography. The new method produced superior results when…

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.…

Information is provided for educators and the general public about the performance of students on the standardized tests administered in 1990 as part of the South Carolina Norm-Referenced Testing (SCNRT) Program. The first section of this report provides background information necessary for interpretation of the results. The second section reports…

Testing and assessment that are "more authentic" (performance-based or alternative) represent the most pressing issue in education today. Some of the major criticisms leveled at standardized testing are examined, and the advantages and disadvantages of more authentic assessment are reviewed. A general direction for integrating traditional and…

This report presents Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) student performance results for the 1989-90 school year. Data are aggregated and reported for the state as a whole, for various student and district demographic groupings, for school districts, and for individual campuses. Section I provides an executive summary of…

The development and preliminary evaluation of the Computerized Adaptive Testing System (CATSYS), a new testing package for IBM-compatible microcomputers, are described. CATSYS can be used to administer and score operational adaptive tests or to conduct on-line computer simulation studies. The package incorporates several innovative features,…

This paper surveys the status of current state and district level practice in content assessment, highlights related research efforts currently underway, and identifies high priority areas for subsequent research in content assessment. A needs assessment for research in content area assessment was conducted during 1986 by the Center for Research…

A report on tests used by California undergraduate institutions and by graduate and professional schools is presented by the California Postsecondary Education Commission. Information is provided on five tests used by undergraduate colleges: the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, the Scholastic…

Florida requires all students in grades 3, 5, 8, and 11 to demonstrate mastery of minimum performance standards using the Florida Student State Assessment Test (SSAT) forms for the appropriate grade level. The tests are administered in October and cover reading, writing, and mathematics. Current practices used to prepare students for the SSAT…