This review critiques the highly-praised and influential 2001 study, "Getting Tough? The Impact of High School Graduation Exams," which concluded that "minimum competency," or high school "graduation exams," had no effect on student achievement. The review compares the test classifications of "Getting…

The two-stage least squares approach together with quantile regression analysis is adopted here to estimate the educational production function. Such a methodology is able to capture the extreme behaviors of the two tails of students' performance and the estimation outcomes have important policy implications. Our empirical study is applied to the…

The authors investigated whether some advantages of tutoring over other instructional methods are due to microadaptation, or, tutors basing their actions on assessments of tutees they develop during tutoring. In a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment, independent variables were shared experience (tutors either worked with the same or a different…

Using the nationally representative, cohort-based data of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:02), this study employs multiple regression to examine the effects of exit exams on student achievement and school completion. This study finds that exit exams as a whole do not have substantial effects on student achievement in mathematics,…

Background/Context: The prevailing theory of action underlying No Child Left Behind's high-stakes testing and accountability ratings is that schools and students held accountable to these measures will automatically increase educational output as educators try harder, schools will adopt more effective methods, and students will learn more. In…

Increasingly frequent journalistic accounts report that schools are responding to No Child Left Behind (NCLB) by engaging in what has come to be known as "educational triage." Although these accounts rely almost entirely on anecdotal evidence, the prospect is of real concern. The NCLB accountability system divides schools into those in…

The Test of Essential Learning and Literacy Skills (TELLS) has been administered to all Pennsylvania students in grades 3, 5, and 8 since 1985. An analysis of results from the 1,505 public elementary schools that served both third and fifth graders between 1986 and 1990 show that in 150 of these schools more than 50 percent of the students scored…

The degree to which it is possible to identify, from data in their cumulative folders, students likely to fail a high school competency test is investigated. Results indicated that some predictor variables could be used to identify those likely to fail Senior High Assessment of Reading Progress and the Test of Proficiency in Computational Skills.…

This document is part of a series of materials meant to promote understanding of the knowledge and skills students must have and the kinds of work they must produce to be successful on the Graduation Exit Examination for the 21st Century (GEE 21). For GEE 21, student scores are reported at five achievement levels: advanced; mastery; basic;…

The effect of a basic competency education program on the achievement of high, average, and low-achieving students was examined for the Alabama Basic Competency Education program (BCE). California Achievement Tests scores in reading, mathematics, and language were examined for 3 years prior to initiation of the BCE program and for 3 years…

Peoria's efforts with the development and implications of a Minimum Competency Testing (MCT) program are described, including the program model used, numbers of high school seniors and seventh graders who passed the pilot test sequence, and views on the advantages, disadvantages, and effectiveness of the MCT program. (Editor/SJL)

This report deals with ways to report basic skills test data which would facilitate the identification of student weaknesses. Under study are the technical aspects and methods associated with the reporting of objective-referenced data. An exploration is then made into the use of patterns of errors in responding to basic skills test items to…

This volume summarizes the results of evaluation and testing activities carried out in the Austin, Texas, Independent School District (AISD) during the 1980-81 school year. The text consists of five parts: Section one highlights important findings in the areas of Title I Schoolwide Projects, compensatory programs, early childhood programs,…

Results are presented of the Connecticut Statewide Basic Skills Proficiency Test, which was administered to Connecticut ninth graders for the fourth time in 1983. The history of the test is summarized; it was designed to identify students who are performing so far below grade level that they require remedial instruction to succeed in the ninth…

An overview is presented of the New Jersey Department of Education's activities in response to the following mandates: (1) statewide minimum standards be established for communication/computation skills; (2) students be tested annually in these areas to determine progress; and (3) remediation be provided to all students whose performance is below…