Principals are increasingly being held accountable for student achievement in the public schools, but there are many questions about how to assess principals' achievement. There are many problems with using the results of standardized testing to assess the achievement of principals. Feedback from teachers appears to be a good way to assess the…

Formative evaluation emphasizes continuous assessment within a unit of study. There are many ways which may be used by the reading teacher to ascertain pupil achievement: teacher observation, a checklist of important reading behaviors, rating scales, anecdotal statements, teacher written tests, class discussions, self evaluation forms,…

Achieving a fair and objective evaluation of teacher performance is not easy. Student test results have been used to assess teacher performance, but this approach has many weaknesses, especially because students differ from school to school and standardized tests are open to questions about their fairness. Criterion-referenced tests have been…

State mandated tests are being implemented in the public schools, but states differ greatly in the complexity of their tests, making comparisons very difficult. States may have widely different definitions of what counts as proficient, and it is evident that state standards are set arbitrarily. It is also important to consider the relationship of…

Selected issues must be considered in choosing an effective assessment method from diverse procedures. External means of evaluation stress the use of national and state-developed tests to measure student achievement. In addition to external evaluations of students, administrators may use external tests for teachers. Internal means of evaluating…

Many changes have occurred in techniques used to appraise student achievement in social studies, and these new approaches may put teachers in a better position to notice the progress of individual students and then plan for sequential learning. Some of the deficiencies of traditionally used standardized tests have been overcome through the use of…

There is presently much disagreement about how students should be evaluated effectively to determine their progress. Some common methods are reviewed, including standardized tests and performance-based evaluation such as portfolios. Continuous experimentation is necessary in the effort to develop better measurement approaches. (SLD)