This call to action is based on a simple but important premise: The nation cannot allow college placement policies, processes, and instruments to undermine promising efforts to increase student success in mathematics and increase attainment of STEM credentials. Efforts to redesign math pathways hold great promise for improving the teaching and…

This paper provides an analysis of inclusion as it relates to national goals, national standards, and national tests for students with disabilities. Concerning the six national education goals specified in Goals 2000, the paper finds that the primary data collection programs used to document progress toward the goals exclude 40 to 50 percent of…

The state of Illinois recently has required state goals for learning to be identified and assessed in the following areas of learning: language arts, mathematics, biological and physical sciences, social sciences, fine arts, and physical development and health. The Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) is designed to assess the progress made…

Over the last 10 to 15 years, a variety of efforts to transform American high schools have gained both public and private support. Significant among these are initiatives to implement Small Learning Communities (SLCs), part of a larger school reform and restructuring effort designed to address a variety of goals, including "downsizing large…

The American College Testing Program (ACT) aims to provide programs and services that assist students in informed educational and career decision making. A variety of ACT programs and services are described, including ACT Asset and Discover. (Author/MLW)

This paper reviews the process employed in Pennsylvania to develop, refine, select, and implement educational indicators at the state level as part of a state testing program. The indicators are used to provide meaningful comparative information for analysis and planning, to encourage school employees to make productive curricular or…

Since 1959, ACT has collected and reported data on students' academic readiness for college. Because becoming ready for college is a process that occurs throughout elementary and secondary education, measuring academic performance over time in the context of college readiness provides meaningful and compelling information about the college…

Results of the West Virginia State-County Testing Program from 1982 to 1985 are summarized. The test battery includes the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS); the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT), a test of scholastic ability; and the West Virginia Student Questionnaire, which includes school subjects interest ratings, educational plans, and…

Urges designers of assessment and counseling systems to consider nontraditional college populations (i.e., older, part-time students) and envision systems that accommodate individual education planning and career goals. Describes a model featuring a customized planning information sequence tailored to the diversity of today's students. (DMM)

Education reformers have been concerned that U.S. schools are not helping to develop in their students critical thinking or reasonable, reflective thinking about what to do or believe. Because of the significant role standardized tests play in measuring student progress, and the way in which they may influence the content and dissemination of what…

Key findings based on data from the Second International Science Study for 19,036 third, fourth, seventh, eighth, ninth, eleventh, and twelfth graders in Sweden are discussed. Findings concerning achievement, attitudes, gender differences, future education, and career choices indicate that science achievement is increasing, and gender differences…

In the third comprehensive Utah Statewide Educational Assessment Program, the public elementary and secondary education system is analyzed regarding factors which influence student and school characteristics, classification and demographic measures of the educational process in the schools and classroom, and instructional approaches and techniques…

This report describes a project to adapt and/or develop instruments, techniques, and procedures for establishing an individual educational planning system for adult students at Salt Lake Community High School. Chapter 1 describes procedures to identify and assess existing approaches for developing individual educational plans (IEPs). It critiques…