This paper outlines the analysis of subject English in a report written for the Commonwealth government entitled "Year 12 Curriculum Content and Achievement Standards" (CCAS). This report could not find "a core of common content (either topics or skills) in senior English (including Literature)". In the light of the diversity…

A significant event for the advancement of economic education in the schools is the development of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in economics. For the first time, national data from a representative sample of students are available to measure the achievement of high school students in economics. The achievement results are…

At grades 8 and 12, the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment contained a small number of 50-minute blocks in addition to the usual 25-minute blocks. To determine whether to incorporate the 50-minute blocks into the operational scaling, this study sought to determine whether the longer blocks measured a…

The purpose of this study was to compare the reliabilities of two-, three-, four-, and five-choice tests using an incremental option paradigm. Test forms were created incrementally, a method approximating actual test construction procedures. Participants were 154 12th-grade students from the Portland (Oregon) area. A 45-item test with two options…

An investigation of biology matriculation tests in Israel was undertaken to assess the use of justifications with multiple-choice items and to compare the effect of three item formats on students' performance. More specifically, the study was designed to determine the: (1) extent to which justifications will differ if the correct answer is made…