Teachers are now experiencing the age of quantitative test-driven assessment, in which there is little weight accorded to teacher-based judgement about student progress. In the Australian context, the NAPLaN test has become a driving force in school and teacher accountability. The language of NAPLaN is one of bands and numerical scores and…

Issues associated with the lack of statistical skills among educational and psychological researchers are discussed. Issues are associated with accreditation standards, faculty positions for psychometric specialists, measurement curricula, and licensing organizations. The Test User Qualification Working Group has produced a model test user…

The 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) will mark the first time that state-level comparisons will be possible with NAEP data. The 1990 data will contain, as a trial component, state-level assessments of eighth graders in mathematics. Mathematics and reading comparisons for fourth graders will be added in 1992. Statistical…

Results of new research into the anomalous results of the 1986 reading portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are reported. The original analysis of the 1986 data indicated that the estimated performance level of 9- and 17-year-old students had dropped dramatically since 1984, whereas the performance of 13-year-olds had…

Recent trends in achievement test scores among elementary and secondary school students in Iowa are examined. Form 7 of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) was used to measure the achievement of students in grades 3 and 7; and Form X-7 of the Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED) was used for 11th graders. These grade levels were chosen…