This book describes how examinations and national assessments can be used to encourage more pedgaogically sound teaching and learning. It provides concrete examples of ways to measure student learning and describes how to develop, score, and interpret tests to ensure that they are valid, reliable, and fair to all children. It offers techniques and…

Describes two instruments for eliciting student beliefs about language learning and teaching--the Foreign Language Survey (FLAS) and the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI). Representative responses of prospective teachers are discussed to demonstrate the usefulness of this information for the foreign language methods class. (SED)

Describes the Group Comprehension Matrix and the Individual Comprehension Matrix, assessment instruments that teachers can use to help them make student placement decisions. (FL)

In 1974, the College Board in Puerto Rico initiated a program on educational counseling for high school-bound students. The program was designed to help students define their educational goals and career interests before entering the ninth grade where they would be required to make specific curriculum choices. The program calls for the…

A strategy that has surfaced as a means of promoting success in the classroom is that of automatic retesting for all children whose scores are unsatisfactory on any administered test. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether the automatic retesting of every student not scoring above a certain point on unit tests is actually…

The impacts of the Grade 12 Provincial Examination Program on the educational system in British Columbia and its participants were studied. Beginning with the 1983-84 school year, students in British Columbia have been required to take an end-of-course provincial examination in each academic course they take. The study began with a review of…