Decisions about assessment are often built on myths about teacher professional judgment and subjectivity that prioritize standardized assessment over classroom assessment. Ken O'Connor and Matt Townsley discuss some of the most common myths and explain how to dispel them by developing clear guidelines in which teachers can exercise their judgment,…

Community colleges have been seen as a gateway into higher education and social mobility. Matriculation of students into higher education has been critical to guiding and directing the rest of their experience as a student. Not many scholars have examined the experiences of students with assessment and placement during matriculation at community…

Panahi and Mohebbi review James Dean Brown's 50-years of research in language testing, curriculum development and research statistics with reference to an impressionistic framework for analysis containing two components with their subcomponents: Annotations (i.e., briefing and implications) and main concepts and themes (i.e., testing and teaching…

Given that teaching Arabic, as a second language has become increasingly significant in the present context, it follows that there is an urgent and pressing need to develop efficient learning tools as well as adequate measuring tools for testing the learner's development. There are numerous problems associated with measuring a learner's…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation spawned a plethora of standardized testing services for all the high stakes testing required by the law. We argue that one-size-fits all assessments disadvantage students who are English Language Learners, in the USA, as well as students with limited economic resources, special needs, and not reading on…

The use of standardized tests for outcome assessment has grown dramatically in recent years. Two driving factors have been the No Child Left Behind legislation, and the increase in outcome assessment measures by accrediting agencies such as AACSB, the international accrediting body for business schools. Despite the growth in usage, little effort…

The practice of handing out excellent grades to students who don't deserve them (grade inflation) is not a new phenomenon. Indeed grade inflation is among the oldest and most difficult issues to address in higher education. The author first studied the impact of grade inflation on student performance on standardized tests at the high school level…

Identifies drawbacks of testing, especially high-stakes, standardized tests, and acknowledges pressures on teachers to acquiesce. Encourages teachers to focus on deep learning; use of higher-level questions, tasks, and projects; a wide range of materials; transfer of learning to other contexts; and ways to diffuse tension and build enthusiasm for…

Standardized tests, with their preoccupation with correctness, encourage barren formulaic writing by students. (DD)

Argues that reading comprehension is better measured in performance contexts than in decontextualized standardized tests (especially for the nonhearing) and that dialogue journal writing is a better method of testing reading comprehension. Five types of comprehension can be isolated in journals: propositions, questions, inferential messages,…

Suggests that, to better gauge children's learning progress, teachers and schools should put less emphasis on standardized tests and more emphasis on continuous classroom assessment of students. (MDM)

The paper examines issues, philosophy and guidelines for psychological assessment of the disabled. Focused on are: (1) adjustments in testing procedures and (2) applicability of standard norms with commonly used psychological test instruments for the assessment of ability, interest, and personality. The importance of accurate assessment for…

The National Education Association's (NEA) resolutions concerning standardized tests, teacher evaluation and subjective ratings, national testing and assessment, student rights, and the improvement of instruction are presented in this interim report of the Task Force on Testing. The NEA strongly encourages the elimination of group standardized…

Deploring standardized testing deficiencies, the author obtained state funding to adapt England's Primary Language Record assessment to U.S. classrooms and piloted the literacy portion throughout California. Now 20 schools and districts across 8 states employ the Learning Record Assessment, accompanied by parental-involvement and…

Just as testing generally is not the answer to the multifaceted problems facing contemporary American education, performance assessment is no panacea. Before embracing this new evaluation method, educators should assess the movement's claims, costs, and characteristics. At present, both goals and costs are uncertain. (30 references) (MLH)