Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the assumptions underlying efforts to evaluate principal effectiveness in terms of student test scores, to review extant research on efforts to estimate principal effectiveness, and to discuss the appropriateness of including estimates of principal effectiveness in evaluations of principals.…

Standardized testing for college admissions has grown exponentially since the first administration of the old "College Boards" in 1901. This paper surveys major developments since then: the introduction of the "Scholastic Aptitude Test" in 1926, designed to tap students' general analytic ability; E.F. Lindquist's creation of…

Tests--typically cognitive achievement tests--are instruments for providing a more sensitive analysis of the learning sequence and of the instruction guiding it. In addition to an overall score, standardized tests provide a variety of subscores that help the teachers identify where a student might be encountering the greatest difficulties. The…

An extensive review of literature related to the role of standardized tests in the assessment of young children was conducted, and recommendations were made for alternative approaches more appropriate to the assessment of young children. The first section of the paper contains a literature review that provides a brief history of standardized tests…

Examines limitations of standard scores of achievement tests used in diagnosing learning disabilities. Consideration of these limitations is important in deciding whether a marked discrepancy exists between ability and achievement. Recommends use of developmental standard scores over status standard scores. (Author/ABB)

Scores on the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT), the Diagnostic Achievement Battery (DAB-2) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III), were compared for 58 students assessed for placement in exceptional education. Primary questions concerned (a) the relationships among WIAT, DAB-2, and WISC-III scores, (b) similarities…

Two trends have converged during the past three decades to change the face of public school education in America. First, achievement testing has been greatly expanded in terms of both the quantity of tests available and the number of uses for the information collected from testing. Second, there has been a significant increase in the development…

Identifies eight factors that should be considered carefully by those who use and interpret achievement test data for individual children: base score, guessing factor, time factor, content validity, test reliability, instructional-level placement, diagnostic analysis, and individual pupil progress data. (RL)

Stakeholders and practitioners are concerned about the extent to which standardized achievement tests are meeting the general and specific purposes they were designed to achieve. Several empirical studies have been conducted to this end. This study reviews this research to determine current trends in teachers' and school administrators'…

A number of major studies are discussed concerning the effects of testing on schools and needed changes in test use to improve education. Test use is analyzed at building and classroom levels for insights on better education, and at local, state, and national levels for oversights of educational progress. (Author/CM)

The history of the relation between achievement tests and curriculum programs is reviewed, and it is concluded that content specialists are best qualified as sources of curricular goals to specify content, kinds of attainment, and standards. The specification of instructional intents is also considered from the perspective of modern cognition…

One of several papers commissioned by the National Institute of Education (NIE), this discussion addresses the utility of test-equating studies for large-scale program evaluation and investigates the use of standardized tests in similar evaluation efforts. The discussion begins with an examination of the question, Should standardized achievement…

Studies of the extent of standardized testing in U.S. schools in the early 1980s to 1990s were reviewed. All show the amount of systemwide testing to be less than two days per year. Methodological issues are explored, and the extent-of-testing estimates are updated to about 1995 through more recent research. (SLD)

This booklet is intended to help school personnel, parents, students, and members of the community understand concepts and research relating to achievement testing in public schools. The paper's sections include: (1) test use with direct effects on students (test of certification, selection, and placement); (2) test use with indirect effects on…

Much of the debate on testing over the last two decades has centered on issues of equity. In this review of testing and the minority child, the ways in which schools can test and use test results to help all children learn are explained. (Author)