Differences between national testing as discussed in the most recent report of the National Council on Education, Standards, and Testing, and by the Office of Technology Assessment are reviewed. National testing is not new, but the political use of nationally standardized achievement tests is a recent and dangerous trend. (SLD)

This report is aimed at helping Congress: (1) better understand the functions, history, capabilities, limitations, uses, and misuses of educational tests; (2) learn more about the promises and pitfalls of new assessment methods and technologies; and (3) identify and weigh policy options affecting educational policy. To prepare this report, the…

The validity of criterion-referenced interpretations of the proficiency scales of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is discussed. A major goal of the NAEP scales is to describe student achievement in specific content areas from grade 3 (age 9 years) through grade 11 (age 17 years). The numerical values for NAEP scales are…

Implementing measurement specialists' ideas about content validity with licensure examinations and the problem of court litigation are discussed. Validity issues surfacing when sponsors of national licensure examinations conduct validity investigations are considered. Issues include local versus national focus on content validity, job analysis,…

The scales of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), as constructed, do not yield meaningful criterion-referenced interpretations. Poorly defined NAEP goals and the present knowledge base do not allow the measurement of what examinees can and cannot do. Inappropriate interpretations of NAEP data are discussed, with specific…

The strengths and weaknesses of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are discussed. The NAEP estimates the number of students who are more likely to do certain problems correctly than other students. NAEP reports the numbers, briefly describes the problems, and says that more students need to do these problems correctly. The…

The thesis of this paper is that achievement tests have changed their primary function from serving as indicators of educational accomplishments to becoming instruments of educational policy, and have thus come to be regarded as effective means of altering educational achievement and productivity. This assertion is explored by using examples of…

Item parameter estimates derived through item response theory methods have been considered relatively robust to changes in item position and context, but the anomaly in reading scores from the 1986 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) illustrates problems with common population equating procedures when there are test form changes.…

Whatever the cause of present-day problems in American education, there is little doubt that proposals for national curricula and examinations are a response to widely-held perceptions of serious problems in the schools. Although national examinations have been proposed, there has been little consideration of their purposes and structures. The…

This paper discusses the relationship of the content of nationally standardized and normed achievement tests and that of local school curricula and the effect that relationship has on the meanings and uses of the test scores. The following questions are considered: (1) whether tests have to match what is taught to be useful; (2) whether it is fair…

This document argues that current efforts to establish a national test to measure progress toward the nation's educational goals will inhibit, rather than advance, educational reform. Proponents of a national test have asked for single, primarily multiple-choice tests, or for performance assessments to measure progress toward the nation's…

Existing uses of assessment data obtained from the Jordanian General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (GSECE) are critically examined. The failure to fully realize potential uses of data is explored and explained in light of the existing testing technology and the associated level of expertise. A short description of the GSECE history,…

Scotland has a system of national surveys of achievement intended to provide information for educational policy and practice. Testing of middle school students in the areas of mathematics, reading, English, and science, is designed to provide national information as opposed to information about individual pupils, schools or local authorities. This…

Student learning is the bottom line for nearly all efforts to establish a national test system. Major efforts in this area are summarized in this paper. The various efforts seem to move ahead independently, but some common ideas include: (1) creating a national assessment system rather than a single test; (2) developing more than multiple-choice…

As the country began to debate the proposition that the United States adopt a national examination system, it became apparent that information was needed about the present extent and cost of testing, as well as the estimated cost of a national examination system. In the fall of 1991, the General Accounting Office (GAO) surveyed testing officials…