The realities of inappropriate and sometimes unethical testing practices must be confronted to make sure that current assessments are as reliable and effective as possible. While this paper does not attempt to provide practical guidelines for ethical and appropriate testing, it does draw a picture of appropriate and ethical testing practices. All…

This annotated bibliography lists works pertaining to tests and measurement. Three guides to commercially published tests are described briefly as follows: (1) the "Mental Measurements Yearbooks" published by the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements; (2) "Tests: A Comprehensive Reference for Assessments in Psychology, Education,…

Selected issues must be considered in choosing an effective assessment method from diverse procedures. External means of evaluation stress the use of national and state-developed tests to measure student achievement. In addition to external evaluations of students, administrators may use external tests for teachers. Internal means of evaluating…

The ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation (ERIC/AE), the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the Buros Institute, and Pro-Ed (publishing) have collaborated to produce the most comprehensive test locator services available on the Internet. The Test Locator service is located in a subdirectory of the ERIC/AE gopher site. It contains several…

A study was conducted to examine and compare, in 10 selected countries, the interaction between current conceptions and theories of assessment and assessment practices. Of particular interest was the nature of changing practice and theory in assessing the learning achievements of students in elementary and secondary education, as well as the…

Following the rules and regulations of compensatory education programs requires the use of objective measures in selecting students for programs, assessing their progress, and monitoring the program's quality. Administrators must remember the following four points when they use test scores for compensatory education students: (1) test scores alone…

Some of the deficiencies and abuses associated with past testing practices are reviewed, and some of the present and future possibilities for educational assessment are explored. At this time, assessment and testing in American schools are caught between the rhetoric of reform and the intransigence of long-established practices. Use of measurement…

Focusing on educational measurement that suggests an action and has an outcome, 16 problem areas are defined and grouped into the following classes: (1) validity; (2) issues of statistical adjustment; (3) data insufficiencies; (4) other issues related to standardized testing and constructed responses; and (5) technical issues of psychometrics.…

Issues of the relative costs of multiple choice tests and alternative types of assessment are explored. Before alternative assessments in large-scale or small-scale programs are used, attention must be given to cost considerations and the resources required to develop and implement the assessment. Major categories of cost to be considered are…

This paper presents a conceptual framework for organizing and relating the many confusing concepts associated with continuous assessment (CA) practices. Curriculum-based criterion-referenced CA is shown to have two major components: formative and summative assessment of student learning. The nature of these components and their interrelationships…