This guide is designed for educators involved in teaching, developing curriculum, or counseling students. It describes six new forms used to report the results of 10th-grade student performance on the Florida State Student Assessment Test, Parts I and II (SSAT-I and -II): (1) Parent Report, SSAT-I; (2) Student Report, SSAT-I; (3) Student Report,…

Discussed are the procedures implemented in the Orleans Parish Schools in response to the Louisiana state-mandated promotional testing program (Act 750, 1979), and concerns regarding its value. Recent findings raise fundamental questions about whether an exclusively skills-focused curriculum in the early years provides the needed grounding in…

This article discusses the potential for discrimination inherent in competency-based testing and suggests some provisions which might be included in a fair competency-based program. Discussed are: (1) racial discrimination; (2) inadequate phase-in periods; (3) tests which are not reliable or have not been validated; (4) inadequate matching of the…

The enthusiasm for competency testing poses a contradiction, for it comes at a time when questions and criticisms are being increasingly raised about tests and their use. In three sections, this paper explores the competency testing movement: 1) main features and basic issues in the competency testing movements; 2) observations on the politics of…

El Camino's first year as a fundamental high school is described. Students wanting to attend El Camino had to apply and agree to the new fundamental emphasis and school rules. As a result, the composition of El Camino's student body changed to one representing all ability levels. Other major changes at El Camino were: (1) academic emphasis was…

Procedures for administering the Proficiency Testing Program, adopted by the Idaho State Department of Education, are explained in this test administration manual. The tests are described as given on a district optional basis to ninth grade students in the basic skills areas of reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics. Criterion-referenced…

Most people seem to think the test will lead to improvement in education. Teachers, however, feel they are being made scapegoats and blacks feel that one crop of eleventh graders is being punished for not being able to make up in one year what they haven't learned in eleven. (Author/IRT)

Discusses seven important issues that should be considered by educators in developing a minimal competency testing policy. (JG)

Classroom instruction is aligned with grade level basic objectives and a yearly survey of these skills. Methods and resources that elementary school principals and teachers can use to teach essential skills are being developed. (Author/MLF)

When designing competency based education programs to meet state requirements, California educators would do well to select only a small number of highly significant competencies per basic skill area, for which they can devise on-target instruction and valid competency measures. (SJL)

Argues that the minimal competency movement contains much that is inimical both to the teaching of language arts and to the integrity and individuality of professional educators. Contends that the movement is creating both damage and diversion in the schools. (FL)

This study was conducted using archival data for 300 students of the graduating class of 1980 in a public school system which had a minimum competency testing (MCT) program. Data on normative variables (age, sex, race, and ability test scores) and performance variables (high school course of study, grade point average, absenteeism, and truancy)…

A study was designed to assess the effects of the introduction of a state-mandated minimum competency test (MCT) on students' acquisition of basic and high-level mathematics skills. Subjects of the study were ninth-grade students, all of whom attended the same schools in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District, and took the same form of the…

This report presents an analysis and synthesis of student performance data collected through state-mandated testing programs. The common performance areas assessed were basic skills achievement. The unique performance areas assessed were content skills within a particular state. Achievement data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress…