This study focuses on the Competency Based Education (CBE) movement in a small Ohio school district, asking whether it represents radical change or reenforces status-quo social stratification. CBE was a product of the recent public demand for more educational accountability. It is a radical shift from traditional U.S. education insofar as it…

The intent of this chapter is to emphasize the student evaluation aspect over other legal principles. Several cases illustrate that courts will interfere with school boards' authority to determine placement of pupils only when a violation of constitutional or statutory rights of a student occurs. In the matter of sanctions against students that…

Arguing that educational testing has not grown with the theory and knowledge base of the reading field, this paper cites the current configuration of testing as a major contributor to the instructional stagnation, methodological back-to-basics movement, and general lack of excitement and true innovation found in classrooms and schools today. The…

Three sets of goals useful for assessing student competencies in speaking and listening are reviewed in this paper. The first instrument examined, derived from a report of that Speech Communication Association's National Project on Speech Communication Competencies for all grades, lists (1) five assumptions concerning the nature of communication…

Interest in applied performance testing and concern about the quality of the high school diploma are finding a common ground: graduation requirements. A competency is a complex capability applicable in real life situations, and can be used as program objectives in a competency-based, criterion-referenced program. In such a program, applied…

Past research on the effects of Minimum Competency Tests (MCT) on teaching and learning is reviewed, and the large database of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is used to shed more light on these effects. There seems to be little doubt that MCT, together with associated changes in instructional methods, has produced some…

There is no current evidence that Minimum Competency Testing (MCT) used to deny high school diplomas has enhanced equal educational opportunities for minority students. Test results, largely indicate that MCT requirements impact disproportionately on black students. Black students' scores may reflect a long history of racial discrimination in the…

Resulting from a project involving district, state, and federal educational agencies, the papers in this, the first of two volumes, are intended to provide information from research and practice that can help school districts in their efforts to make decisions about goals and methods of basic skills instruction. The topics of the papers in the…

The legislative history and provisions, implementation, and intended use of 12 state-mandated programs are described. Florida's program was mandated in 1971. The other states (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia) initiated programs after 1975; most are in their…

Student test scores are increasingly used to judge the competence of the educational enterprise. Exaggeration of scores is the result of directing attention away from the individual student achievement to the average scores of schools, districts, and states. Implications and recommendations are discussed. (BJV)

This report reviews literature pertaining to testing accommodations for students with disabilities. It draws on such information as empirical studies conducted by the Educational Testing Service and the American College Testing Program as well as policies for state assessment programs. The report addresses policy and legal considerations,…

One of seven sections of a report that examines the assessment of occupational competence, this chapter provides a review of how the courts have responded to assessment practices. The difference in the perspectives held by the users and originators of assessment procedures and those held by the courts is developed by examining key court cases…

The literature on essay testing, and particularly the selection of topics which will stimulate the writing of essays, was reviewed in order to recommend a set of specifications that will produce topics that are maximally fair to all teacher certificate candidates. It was found that by far the greater part of the research relating to writing…

The concepts of competency can be conceptually separated into two dimensions: minimum competency testing (MCT) and competency based education (CBE). One of the major weaknesses of the MCT movement is the growing reliance on single test scores as indicators of the total capability of students. Minorities do not reject the idea of competence, but…

During the 1982-83 school year the Spencerport (New York) Central School District began a comprehensive project to study the effective schools research and its implications at all levels of a suburban school system. A leadership planning team (consisting of teachers, principals, and district personnel) participated in a series of workshops and…