The second round of litigation in the case of Debra P. v. Turlington has required the Federal courts to consider the question whether the Florida statute which requires public high school graduates to demonstrate the "ability to successfully apply basic skills to every day life situations" as measured by the State Student Assessment…

The objective of the study was to determine whether Competency-Based Testing (CBT) schools altered their curriculum differently than Non-Competency-Based Testing schools (NCBT), and, if so, what selected factors were identified as contributing to the differences among the responses secondary schools made to CBT. The data from 410 member high…

In the Louisiana Basic Skills Testing (BST) program, initiated in 1982, criterion-referenced tests of language arts and mathematics were administered to all second grade students. Longitudinal data over three years tracked four cohorts of students to address when retention appears to be most effective and whether a combination of repeated…

To assist low achieving students in the mastery of instructional objectives in major subject areas, the Ministry of Education of Israel published definitions of Minimum Achievement Requirements (MAR) for specific subjects at all grade levels. To examine the feasibility of the MAR approach and to determine whether it contributed to the attainment…

Raising the level of academic achievement of all students in New Jersey has been a major goal since 1982. As a part of that effort, the focus has changed from the low expectations of the Minimum Basic Skills program to the more rigorous demands of the High School Proficiency Test. This report includes background information on the effort to…

The symbolic function of curricular debate, as it is manifested in the minimum competency testing movement (MCT), is investigated. Curricular debate necessarily reflects the demands of the society in which it arises. The topics that are addressed spring from this milieu and the language in which issues are couched must be appropriate to it.…

The problem of setting standards has always been an issue in the educational community. This paper offers an outline of one state's procedure for setting a passing score for a competency-based test in mathematics. The Maryland Functional Mathematics Test (MFMT) becomes a graduation prerequisite for the graduating class of 1987. The procedures used…

This study compared the reliability and validity of two different measures of reading ability, the Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) and the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) Reading test and the ITBS Vocabulary test. The data consisted of scores of 377 grade 5 and grade 6 students on these tests, along with their assigned reading levels in the…

This paper describes the development of the Basic Educational Skills Test (BEST) in the Austin Independent School District. In 1982 future options for the AISD minimum competency program, which requires all students to meet minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics before graduation, were evaluated against legal and local criteria. It…

This paper examined some of the issues surrounding the Arizona Teacher Proficiency Examination (ATPE), including the rationale for teacher testing, the Arizona approach to testing, and selected student outcomes. Arizona moved from Legislative directive in April 1980, to the implementation of the Arizona Teacher Proficiency Examination in June…

A reliability study of the Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills (CIBS) is presented. All test-data collectors were provided onsite training in the administration and scoring of the CIBS. The sample included 85 black and 319 white students from grades two through eight, from parochial and private schools, in a southeastern metropolitan…

The pattern toward an increase in the number of states using some form of competency testing prior to the certification of educators is substantiated in this paper. Competency testing programs are implemented at three distinct levels: (1) before entrance into a teacher education program near the end of the sophomore year in college; (2) at the end…

This report presents Fall, 1991 results of the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Testing which tests incoming college students and evaluates collegiate remedial courses. A summary of the findings notes that freshmen recorded poorer results on every section of the test compared to 1990 results, that in verbal skills 42 percent lacked…

This study examined the relationship between teacher education students' scores on basic skills admission tests and graduating seniors' scores on the National Teacher Examinations (NTE) at Eastern Kentucky University. The 1981-82 basic skills test scores for 262 teacher education students were compared with their NTE scores taken in 1984-85 during…

Some ninth-grade students from three Knoxville City high schools have continuously performed substantially less well than those from other city schools in the Tennessee State proficiency tests. A task force developed a plan to work with grade 8 in the middle schools and grade 9 in the high schools to prepare students to perform better on state…