Recognizing the potential of accountability tests to alter classroom instruction, an overview is provided of the federal government's past influence on educational assessments. The past 50 years has witnessed the function of federally engendered educational assessments shift from monitoring the use of federal funds for programs prescribed for…

The author notes the assessment requirements of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 and discusses the value to educators of understanding handicapped students' needs in planning their instruction and assessment. (MF)

Some of the challenges that test publishers face in constructing educational assessments that meet high technical quality as prescribed in the "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" (AERA, APA, NCME, 1999) are examined. Federal educational initiatives are used to illustrate demands on technical quality that challenge the efforts of…

This article will argue that cost-benefit analysis persuasively demonstrates that truth-in-testing laws are socially and economically justified but often fall short of providing a comprehensive regulatory scheme adequate to correct the market dislocations generated by an unregulated testing industry. (Author)

A qualitative evaluation of the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) as implemented in a Colorado public school system is presented. The evaluation relies heavily on perceptions of participating administrators, and is very positive. (JKS)

The speeches presented at the second national conference on testing deal with models for program evaluation, reporting of test results, minimum competency programs, and the role of state and federal government in educational testing. Various approaches to program evaluation, and its relationship to testing are described by Michael Scriven, Lee J.…

A defense of the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) in response to previous articles in this issue of this journal is presented by the test developer. The defense is detailed and addresses each previous article. (JKS)

The problems existing during the reorganization of the Cleveland School District into a unitary administration are presented from the perspective of the head of the Research and Analysis Department. The district had been fighting a desegregation case for 9 years and operating in a receivership with a triple bureaucracy imposed upon it (the normal…

The advocacy and establishment of legislation for minimum competency tests appears to be based upon the desire to hold educators responsible for their products, to measure the cost effectiveness of education, and to insure that all students obtain an adequate education in basic skills; but it is argued that using minimum competency standards has…

In May and June of each year, Soviet students who have completed grades one through ten face a final examination in each of the major subjects which they have studied. The examinations are constructed by the ministries of education in the Soviet republics and are submitted to the individual school district authorities. The type, form, and purpose…