This report, seventh in a series, is designed to measure progress made by the nation toward the eight National Education Goals. This year's "Goals Report" highlights student achievement in mathematics and science, two of the core academic subjects in which all students are expected to demonstrate competence. The promising news is that…

The "National Education Goals Report" is published annually to describe progress toward the National Education Goals. This summary of the full report presents more than two dozen national core indicators to convey how much progress has been made in each of the eight National Education Goals. In addition, this year's "Summary"…

This report, eighth in a series, is designed to measure progress made by the nation toward the eight National Education Goals. A statement of the eight National Education Goals is followed by an Introduction which explains the indicators by which progress toward the Goals is measured. The Introduction also summarizes national and state findings…

This paper describes the processes that one school district, the Visalia Unified School District (California), went through in establishing a standards-based assessment and accountability system using multiple methods. First the district's standards-based assessment and accountability system and the methods used to establish it are described, and…

Field trials were conducted to test rating methods and the impact of feedback about consequences for the 1998 achievement levels-setting (ALS) process for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The field trials provided the opportunity to try out different methods similar to those used successfully by others, as well as to try out…

The purpose of the NMSBA technical report is to provide users and other interested parties with a general overview of and technical characteristics of the 2007 NMSBA. The 2007 technical report contains the following information: (1) Test development; (2) Scoring procedures; (3) Summary of student performance; (4) Statistical analyses of item and…

This document, a companion to the "LAS Guide Principles and Criteria for the Adoption of Local Assessment Systems," [ED484135] presents results that are intended to provide Maine's school administrative units with an option for selecting sample performance indicators to be assessed through the Local Assessment System to meet the…

This paper examines reasons why personnel policy and wage setting differ between traditional public, private, and charter schools and the effects of these policies on academic measures of teacher quality. Survey and administrative data suggest that the regulatory freedom, small size of wage-setting units, and a competitive market environment make…

A new standard setting method, Mapmark, was recently developed by ACT Inc. in the course of a contract with the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) to set achievement levels for the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Grade 12 mathematics. Mapmark includes elements of the bookmark method (Lewis, Mitzel, & Green, 1996;…

This report, the second of two published to date, provides the most current information on progress made toward realizing the six national education goals adopted by the nation's governors and President Bush at an educational summit held in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1989. The goals established a framework for action in terms of readiness for…

A basic technical framework is provided for the design and use of mastery tests. The Mastery Testing Project (MTP) prepared this framework using advanced mathematics supplemented with computer simulation based on real test data collected by the South Carolina Statewide Testing Program. The MTP focused on basic technical issues encountered in using…

At the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is the call for all students to be "proficient" in reading and mathematics by 2014. Yet the law expects each state to define proficiency as it sees fit and design its own tests. This study investigated three research questions related to this policy: (1) How consistent are various…

The 1992 achievement tests for the Alberta (Canada) public schools show what students in grades 3, 6, and 9 can do in social studies, language arts, and mathematics, respectively. Results are reported in terms of curriculum standards, achievement standards, and assessment standards. In June 1992, there were 41,696 students in grade 3, 37,837 in…

The purpose of the NMSBA technical report is to provide users and other interested parties with a general overview of and technical characteristics of the 2006 NMSBA. The 2006 technical report contains the following information: (1) Test development; (2) Scoring procedures; (3) Calibration, scaling, and equating procedures; (4) Standard setting;…

A set of career cluster standards was developed for the school-to-careers division of a large urban school district that is moving toward a career academy model for high school education. The process used to develop the standard was based on a standards development model consisting of the following stages: synthesis; collection of input; and…