The field of educational measurement has evolved considerably since the first doctoral programs were established. In response, programs have typically tacked on courses that address newly developed theories, methods, tools, and techniques. As our review of current programs evidences, this approach produces artificial distinctions among topics and…

Aims: To examine the quality of screening and assessment practices at some of the most highly regarded adolescent substance use treatment programs in the United States. Methods: Between March and September 2005, telephone surveys were administered to directors of highly regarded programs. Several different publications and databases were then used…

Local assessment systems are being marketed as formative, benchmark, predictive, and a host of other terms. Many so-called formative assessments are not at all similar to the types of assessments and strategies studied by Black and Wiliam (1998) but instead are interim assessments. In this article, we clarify the definition and uses of interim…

Assessments labeled as formative have been offered as a means to improve student achievement. But labels can be a powerful way to miscommunicate. For an assessment use to be appropriately labeled "formative," both empirical evidence and reasoned arguments must be offered to support the claim that improvements in student achievement can be linked…

Formative and summative evaluations in education are compared, and appropriate uses of these methods in program evaluation are discussed. The main purpose of formative evaluation is to determine a level of mastery of a learning task, along with discovering any part of the task that was not mastered. In other words, formative evaluation focuses the…

At the request of the Massachusetts Department of Education, Achieve, Inc., conducted an evaluation of the state's K-12 mathematics standards and grade 10 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests in English language arts and mathematics during the spring and summer of 2001. The state's English Language Arts standards were not…

As developer and custodian of the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB), the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) is responsible for ensuring that its use meets established professional standards. Considering the logistical problems of overseeing the use of the GATB at more than 2,000 separate sites, the USDOL has confronted a monumental task in the…

In response to concerns that Title I, the largest source of federal funding for education, was not significantly improving the educational achievement of at-risk students, Congress, in 1994, mandated major changes, including changes to the ways in which states measure student performance. This report provides a snapshot of how close states had…

A review of 61 interventions to reduce the rate of medical diagnostic testing reveals that many approaches were successful; the mean reduction observed was 22%. Interventions based on analysis of needs and concerns about negative side effects tended to be more effective. (SLD)

Assumptions implicit in the current use of licensing and certification examinations are identified, relevant evidence for these assumptions are reviewed, and implications for current methods of measurement are discussed. To ensure the protection of public health, it is critical to determine whether training and credentialing programs serve their…

A procedure for testing the ability of dental students to detect presence and depth of dental caries was evaluated. Students (n=40) from four experience groups examined radiographs obtained from a model. Results indicated that this method of assessing student competence in radiographic interpretation is valid. (MSE)

The objectives of this program evaluation were to gather information and normative data about the students referred for psychoeducational evaluation; to determine the diagnostic profile of students referred for special education; and to use the information gathered to determine future program direction and possible program modifications. Students…

Criteria are presented for determining whether licensure and/or achievement test results should be used for making various types of comparisons and judgments about medical education programs. The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and National Board of Medical Examiners tests (NBME) are then considered as data sources. (Author/MSE)

This paper explores what a responsible test developer would do to support the consequential validity of a test early in the development process, and how the consequential validity of the program should be monitored and addressed during the life of the program. To illustrate the issues concretely, the validity of the American College Testing…

An overview of issues in program evaluation is provided for corporate contributions administrators, including the place of testing in such evaluations, so that the administrators are in a better position to plan, commission, monitor, evaluate, and use evaluations of the projects they fund. In the first chapter, metaphors and models for educational…