This article examines the historical development of the state's actions in educational assessment in Chile from the nineteenth century to the present day, based on the analysis of governmental decrees and regulations related to assessment, and their variability over time. The research identifies six distinctive periods, each of which expresses a…

Standardized testing is a reality with which all educators must contend. Although the laws enforcing such assessments do so under the premise that students will thereby be assured an equal opportunity for academic success, they overlook a critical point--students are human beings with needs that reach beyond what is measured on a test. In this…

Findings reveal that memory retrieval at six months of age is highly specific to the setting in which the memory is acquired. This suggests that infants learn what events are associated with what places before they are able to locomote independently and acquire a spatiotemporal map of the relations between those places. (RH)

The purpose of this study was to determine the minimal conditions of observation needed to obtain generalizable results across observers, trials, and subjects for the hop, jump, and run at the elementary level. Results are discussed. (JD)

The Laramie County School District Number 1 (Wyoming) developed local norms for a standardized developmental test of entering school students. The district's analysis of the differences between the local norms and the national norms is presented. Further study of the results is needed to assess the tests' usefulness. (MD)

Summarizes the most important results of two international studies, the Educational Careers and Psychosocial Development in Youth (ECPDY) and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Addresses the problems of measuring school achievement and determining social behavior and other attributes. (CMK)

Because of student characteristics in the middle years, several types of assessment are needed. The national monitoring system being developed by the Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) may prove a useful assessment framework for individual schools, providing developmental data for program comparisons and student movement between schools. (SJL)

Quantitative growth curve models for estimating individual developmental functions from various types of longitudinal data are discussed in the context of investigator assumptions and research design characteristics. Linear and nonlinear models that estimate growth curves are illustrated, and contrasted when they are fit to speech development…

Judicial pronouncements and legislative acts in recent years have established the responsibility of schools to provide educational services for each child, preferably in the educational mainstream. Mainstreaming represents an effort to provide equal opportunities for education to all children. A brief treatment of some of the foundational aspects…

Testing in foreign language classrooms is characterized by excessive preoccupation with students' ability to manipulate small grammatical features, while testing of communication is conspicuously absent. Furthermore, current testing is often done for the purpose of generating labels for students or for their post-instructional performance. This…