According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), US reading and math scores have recently dropped. This decline is believed to be the result of the school closings that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The drop likely contributed to the increase in pressure educators are feeling to teach in a way that leads to higher test…

No significant body of research examines writing achievement and the specific skills and knowledge in the writing domain for postsecondary (college) students in the U.S., even though many at-risk students lack the prerequisite writing skills required to persist in their education. This paper addresses this gap through a novel…

This handbook is intended to help high school and college counselors effectively use and interpret ACT results. It contains four main sections: Section 1, "Components of the ACT," which contains general information about the ACT tests, probably will be of interest both to high school counselors and to college advisors and other staff. …

Portfolio assessment has become a widely cited technique for obtaining a rich demonstration of the skills that students have acquired, and it is often implied that portfolio assessment provides different types of information from that obtained from standardized tests. This paper provides support for the contention that portfolio assessments do…

The study investigated the issue of differential selection of foils (incorrect responses) with Black English structures by black and white examinees. Linguistic research revealed systematic differences between Black English and Standard American English. Grammatical and phonological features were important distinctions. Five categories of Black…

Writers of mathematics test items, especially those who write for standardized tests, are often advised to arrange the answer options in logical order, usually ascending or descending numerical order. In this study, 32 mathematics items were selected for inclusion in four experimental pretest units, each consisting of 16 items. Two versions…