Educational assessment and, more broadly, educational research in the United States have entered into an era characterized by a dramatic increase in the prevalence and importance of test score use in accountability systems. This volume covers a selection of contemporary issues about testing science and practice that impact the nation's public…

This collection of essays focuses on educational testing, showing how testing encroaches on teacher freedom and how narrow standards can actually reduce student achievement. The chapters are: (1) Testing Is Not Teaching; (2) The Freedom Factor; (3) Sharing Power with Intelligent Expectation; (4) Everyone Has a Story To Tell; (5) Lets Change the…

The articles in this section discuss aspects of assessment: (1) "Assessment: What Is It? Why Do We Need It? How Do We Use It?" (Roy Berko and Linda Webster); (2) "Public Speaking Assessment for College Students" (William W. Neher and Deborah Grew); and (3) "Student Progress? Prove It!" (Donna Surges Tatum). (SLD)

Schools committed to the success of all children must have an array of activities designed to address barriers to learning. This introductory packet contains some aids to help school staff find new ways of thinking about how schools should assess barriers to learning. The following items are included in the packet: (1) a chart of "Barriers to…

In 1998 the Colorado State General Assembly passed a bill that revised the schedule for implementation of the Colorado Student Assessment Program of state assessments. During the 1998-99 school year, the state assessment was to include third-grade literacy, fourth-grade reading and writing, and seventh-grade reading and writing. The newsletters in…

Parents are interested in testing, but they need information about what types of tests are given to their children, what tests measure, and how tests can be used constructively. Standardized tests are the particular concern of parents because they believe testing is an integral part of education. (Author/CM)

This book is an effort to examine the theory and practice of educational assessment while taking a step toward the development of a new paradigm. Fundamental changes in the way education is conceptualized must accompany the effort to rethink assessment theory and practice. The following chapters are included: (1) "The Need for a New Science…

This collection of articles is designed to enhance leadership for the promotion of effective evaluation and learning. The articles include an Introduction, by Fred Snyder; Exerting Leadership Toward Effective Evaluation of Pupil Performance, by T. L. Drake; The Elementary Principal as an Instructional Leader, by John Ourth; The Secondary Principal…

These discussions of performance-based student assessment provide a record of a decade-long exploration of unsettled issues in assessment. The first section provides the elements of a basic rationale for performance-based assessment, while the second section contains accounts of efforts to develop new performance-based systems in one city and four…

The news release and other documents in this packet report information about the nation's 1996 high school graduates who took the American College Testing Program (ACT) Assessment. The packet contains, in addition to the news release, the 1996 Summary Report of national data, "The High School Profile Report, Normative Data: A Description of…

This monograph contains seven articles which focus primarily on formative evaluation for the purpose of furthering the learning of pupils. The articles include: an overview of formative evaluation by Peggy Chnupa; a description of the use of measurement and evaluation as an early screening for entering school children, by Sherrel Marginet and…