Great teachers recognize great assessments. As policy and education leaders work to make sure state tests are measuring the problem-solving, writing, and critical-thinking skills students need for success, they should convene and rely on teachers to review test quality and help answer the question: Do the questions on our state test reflect…

This report is a summary of research that was recently conducted with instructors of distance learning programs. Sixty-two professors from 10 categories of courses completed an e-mail survey. The advantages and disadvantages of assessments seemed to revolve around the key issues of time, synthesis or knowledge acquisition, subjective or objective…

In July 1986, the Portland (Oregon) Public Schools began a 3-year study of the use of evaluative data in instructional planning and decision making in schools. This report summarizes the second year of the investigation, in which case studies of evaluative data use were conducted in one elementary school (kindergarten through grade 5) and one…