This technical assistance paper provides policy and guidance to individuals with test administration responsibilities in adult education programs. The Florida assessment policies and guidelines presented herein are appropriate for state and federal reporting. Therefore, guidance and procedures regarding the selection and use of appropriate student…

Assessments come in many forms in part because they serve many purposes, and those purposes often vary by the stakeholders they support. Students, parents, teachers, and school, district and state leaders may all be end users of the information provided by various assessments. This brief supports state leaders' understanding of assessments by…

This document is the second volume in a set of five Career Education Measurement Handbooks intended to help local education personnel in measurement and evaluation. This handbook is designed to provide descriptions of an assortment of measurement instruments currently being used to assess career education objectives. A brief introduction describes…

Noting that the purpose of testing and test validity, reliability, norms, and usefulness should be primary considerations in choosing a reading test, this paper is intended to serve as a guide in test selection. The document provides a checklist for collecting the information necessary for selecting a test, and brief overviews of five reading…

This document is the third volume in a set of five Career Education Measurement Handbooks intended to help local education personnel in measurement and evaluation. Divided into seven major sections, this handbook is designed to provide practical guidelines for improving career education instruments developed at the local level. It is primarily…

This handbook is designed to serve as a resource for Alaskan district-level administrators in charge of planning, implementing and monitoring districtwide student assessment programs. The information is divided into 10 chapters, including: (1) aligning assessment with curriculum and instruction; (2) planning an assessment program; (3)…

Information necessary for informed use by practitioners of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) tests is presented. Assessment instruments that (1) have as a basic assumption that thinking skills can be taught; (2) provide information that can be useful for instructional planning related to complex thought processes; and (3) have content that is…

Argues that tests should be used to improve instructional programs. Specific suggestions include the study of reports on test performance, item analysis on classroom tests, item analysis as a part of standardized test reports, use of diagnostic or inventory tests, and careful selection of test items. (PK)

This handbook was developed to provide adult educators in Texas with sufficient background in assessment models to ensure confidence in recognizing and/or selecting appropriate measurement techniques and in using evaluation results to individualize and improve instruction for adult students. The handbook is based on information derived from a…

Criterion-referenced and norm-referenced tests are compared, and norm-referenced tests are found to have inadequacies as a basis for evaluation or instructional improvement. Disadvantages of norm-referenced tests, which measure a student's performance relative to the performance of other students, are: (1) mismatches between local curriculum and…

The objectives of this booklet are to provide suggestions, procedures, and rules of thumb to aid the evaluator in using achievement tests in program evaluation. It also discusses some of the theories underlying the procedures for developing and selecting achievement tests and interpreting their results. Each of the six chapters offers advice on…