Discusses the consequences for equity issues in testing and evaluation that come with the inclusion of performance assessment components in public examinations. Uses data from the British General Certificate of Secondary Education to show effects on course work offered and gender equity and that student evaluation does not always function as…

The purpose of this study was to investigate certain aspects of the internal structure of the DISCOVER assessment checklist (C. Maker, A. Nielson, and J. Rogers, 1994) to assess its construct validity. Other purposes included assessing percentages of identified students and gender differences through the use of the assessment. The sample consisted…

To explore the effects that changing to performance-based assessment has had on sex differences in science achievement that had been observed with traditional tests, 3 studies involving more than 906 elementary school students compared scores of males and females on performance-based tests. Few gender differences were found. (SLD)

Work on the development of history performance assessments is described. So far, six complete sets of assessments in United States history have been developed as part of this project. Students are first assessed on their historical knowledge of the period through a short-answer test. They are then asked to write an essay explaining the positions…

Since its introduction in 1988 the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), the main public examination for pupils at age 16 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, has become an obvious area in which to investigate gender-related differences in performance. As a complex attainment test, the GCSE is largely made up of a coursework…

The end-of-grade component of the North Carolina Testing Program was implemented in 1992-93 in response to state legislation. The end-of-grade tests emphasize higher-order thinking skills and the ability of students to solve real-life types of problems. These tests also reflect the higher standards set forth in national curriculum standards for…

The testing practices and tests described in the preceding articles are reviewed and compared. This cross-cultural examination identifies some issues that are common to the United States and Europe: (1) the emphasis on performance tasks, (2) the accommodation of language minorities, and (3) concerns about gender differences. (SLD)