This paper provides a history of ETS's role in developing assessment instruments and psychometric procedures for measuring change in large-scale national assessments funded by the Longitudinal Studies branch of the National Center for Education Statistics. It documents the innovations developed during more than 30 years of working with…

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…

Examines the purposes of large-scale assessment programs, outlines the dangers and benefits of these assessments, considers the research evidence about the consequences of assessment, discusses how to evaluate assessment quality, and presents some ideas about the variables that influence the probabilities for good and bad assessment. (SLD)

Examines the policy initiatives of the National Curriculum and the National Assessment and Testing programs in Great Britain. Argues that school-based teacher assessment and centralized testing lend themselves to professional accountability and market accountability. Concludes that an official policy of advocating both methods will create…

In a survey of 51 state science supervisors, 93 percent of the supervisors who replied said that state-wide minimum-competency testing did not assess science learning. (BB)

This book provides a comprehensive evaluation of the goals, objectives, and procedures of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Separate chapters discuss NAEP's objectives and organizational development; its division of knowledge into subject areas; the subject-area objectives; exercise development; measurement of background…

Five articles in this special issue present the approaches to accountability found in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland, provinces that represent 85% of all Canadian elementary and secondary school students. The articles are then discussed by representatives of four national Canadian educational associations. (SLD)

The document discusses the decrease of student scores on the citizenship section of the statewide Pennsylvania Educational Quality Assessment (EQA). The document presents an overview of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education goals, describes behaviors that EQA measures, and provides sample questions for fifth, eighth, and eleventh-grade…

This report contains each of the general addresses and symposia of the annual California conference on educational evaluation. The three general sessions described are concerned with the evaluation of instruction and instructors, and some procedural problems of evaluation. The symposia included: (1) Divergent Perceptions of Instructional…

In the initial article by Edward Roeber, performance assessment is defined as an exercise in which the student demonstrates specific skills and competencies rather than selecting one of several predetermined answers to an exercise. Such as assessment contains four components: (1) a reason for the assessment; (2) a particular peformance to be…

Commemorating the work of Anne Cleary, the author considers the need for research on assessment in the practice context, provides an example of research in context, and proposes general areas of development for assessment research in the context of practice. Research has shown that effects of testing programs on practice are often not those that…

A computer simulation procedure was developed to reproduce the overall pattern of results obtained in the Educational Testing Service Growth Study. Then simulated data for seven sets of 10,000 to 15,000 cases were analyzed, and findings compared on the basis of correlations between estimated and true growth scores. Findings showed that growth was…

In winter 1982-83, a survey of California's community colleges was conducted to determine which assessment activities were considered most effective and to identify areas needing improvement. Responses were received from 99 of the 106 colleges in the system. Study findings included the following: (1) assessment procedures, counseling procedures,…

This report concerns the governance of the structure of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), especially the law and the role of the Assessment Policy Committee (APC). The major sources of evidence include interviews with APC members and National Institute of Education (NIE) staff, minutes of APC meetings and historical documents…

Quality Performance Accreditation (QPA), as mandated by the Kansas State Board of Education, requires schools to document student learning through multiple assessment strategies and requires students to participate in state-developed assessments in reading, writing, mathematics, and science. The Kansas National Education Association has joined…