The role of school psychologists and counselors in assessment is well established. With the current emphasis on collaboration in schools and the use of a pupil services model to deliver services, it is important to examine ways in which school psychologists and counselors can work together for assessment purposes. School psychologists' involvement…

The research literature provides important guidance to counselors working to keep abreast of the latest thinking regarding best practices and recently developed counseling tools. The purpose of this digest is to highlight a few errors that seem to recur within the literature, and to provide some helpful references that further explore these…

Performance-based assessment has the potential to support a richer curriculum and more accurately assess the skills of low-income minority students than standardized tests. Performance-based assessment has the following advantages: (1) it allows a wide range of expression; (2) it permits assessment of learning in a natural context while students…

Educators use informal theories and assumptions to guide their actions, yet often fail to evaluate these beliefs. This digest examines the nature and purpose of educational-indicator systems and discusses the design of report cards by which schools can inform the public of their performance. An indicator is any statistic that casts light on the…

Educators use informal theories and assumptions to guide their actions, yet often fail to evaluate these beliefs. This ERIC Digest in Spanish examines the nature and purpose of educational-indicator systems and discusses the design of report cards by which schools can inform the public of their performance. An indicator is any statistic that casts…

This digest describes some of the basic logic-of-evaluation skills and some of the basic methodological skills that need to be mastered in order to practice the art and science of evaluation. Some topics from the logic of evaluation that must be dealt with include understanding : (1) the differences and connections between evaluation and other…

Promoting ethical practices in assessment is considered to be a very important goal of the organizations involved in assessment. Codes are intended to increase the awareness of ethical practice among their memberships and to promote ethical uses of assessment in various contexts such as teaching, counseling, evaluation, and research. The level of…

This digest examines features of both process and impact evaluations to help officials of youth programs assess the programs for which they are responsible. With proper planning, evaluation can be part of a program without having to compete for attention and resources with the services the program is trying to provide. A process evaluation…

This digest concerns itself with the origin of reflective thought, the application of theories about reflective thought to classrooms, conflicts and issues, and a synthesis of the essential ideas. Sections of the Digest address origin of the idea of reflective thought, definitions of reflective thinking, questioning strategies, how to generate…

A synthesis of the report, "The Current State of Assessment in Literature," (produced by the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature), this digest discusses methods of evaluating students' knowledge of literature. The digest argues that, by and large, the tests that now exist in the United States do not live up to the…

Performance assessment is a type of educational assessment in which judgments are made about student knowledge and skills based on observation of student behavior or inspection of student products. In dealing with the issue of fairness in performance assessment, educators are confronted with some dilemmas. Assuring equality in performance…

This digest addresses the role of evaluation and its basic logic, and provides a description of how the field is structured. In order to reach evaluative conclusions it is usually necessary to establish or identify factual promises and value premises. To obtain the required kind of overall evaluative conclusion, it is typically necessary to…

Computer-assisted testing (CAT) in counseling and therapy is becoming increasingly common due to dramatic improvements in cost-effectiveness and increased counselor familiarity with computer applications. The assumption underlying the use of CAT is that the effectiveness of counseling is improved by allocating repetitive computational and…

Much of the evaluation of vocational education at the state and local levels has been conducted in response to federal legislation. Although some of the evaluative information has been useful for program improvement, much has been collected only for compliance with federal and state mandates. The educational reform movement has prompted school…

This digest recommends assessing all of a person's abilities, not just some. It also discusses self-report in the context of ability assessment. Current use of self assessment methodology taps more ability areas than existing ability or aptitude tests cover. Alternative testing approaches have been called for which enhance self-discovery and…