This criticism of writing competency tests questions both the efficacy of a test developed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the reliance of individual states on the products of private testmakers. The paper suggests that a hidden curriculum is being developed by independent and semi-independent organizations that…

In 1979-80, the Arkansas minimum competency tests were administered to a sample of 5,000 students in grades 3, 6, and 8. To determine how well test objectives matched the curriculum, their teachers estimated how many of the four items per objective a randomly selected student would answer correctly. Because chi square test comparisons of teacher…

At present, states have no consistent manner in which limited-English-proficient (LEP) students are assessed on statewide or district-level minimum competency examinations. In some states, LEP students need to take the same minimum competency examinations under the same rules as other students to graduate or be promoted. Competency tests have the…

Opinionnaires were sent to one person in each of the 50 states who was knowledgeable about minimum competency testing. Results showed significant differences in opinion, but there was agreement that tests should be used to improve instruction and identify students needing remedial help. (JHZ)

Competency testing often refers to a system devised to assure successful performance on a specific test, in addition to other mandated criteria as a requisite to obtaining a high school diploma. Minimum competency testing is usually defined in one of two ways: as the acquisition of basic skills or as the demonstrated ability to apply basic skills…

Content, instructional, and curricular validity, as related to certification tests, are examined. All three deal with content validity but the domain differs among the the three. Certification tests must have instructional validity, i.e., the test must be valid both with respect to the domain used to define the minimum competencies and the…

The hypothesis that role-playing scenarios specifying full rhetorical contexts were a superior means of eliciting valid writing samples for the purpose of assessing compositional skills of prospective Florida teachers was tested. In addition, topics for use on the initial administrations of the Florida Teacher Competency Examination's writing…

A reliability study of the Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills (CIBS) is presented. All test-data collectors were provided onsite training in the administration and scoring of the CIBS. The sample included 85 black and 319 white students from grades two through eight, from parochial and private schools, in a southeastern metropolitan…

Participants in this conference of educators, convened to consider methods of evaluating teacher education students, focused upon the relationship between candidate quality and teacher effectiveness. Questions under consideration included: (1) pre-admission field experiences students should demonstrate; (2) optimum scores on aptitude and…

The College Outcome Measures Project (COMP) was organized to design, develop, validate, and disseminate assessment instruments and procedures to measure and evaluate the knowledge and skills that undergraduate students are expected to acquire as a result of general or liberal education programs, as well as those important to effective functioning…

The introduction of training packages has focused attention on the quality of assessment in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector on the quality of assessment. For the process of mutual recognition under the Australian Recognition Framework (ARF) to work effectively, there needs to be confidence in assessment decisions made…

Test scores on the Test of Basic Concepts, a school readiness test, were compared with actual performance in school for 186 low-scoring and 133 high-scoring groups of first graders from Spain at the beginning of the school year to explore the issues of competence testing and prediction of performance. The measure of school performance was derived…

This paper focuses on ways in which one state policy for improving education--standard-setting through testing mechanisms--affects the classroom teacher-learner relationship. That uniform policy-making is problematic is clear from observations of 43 Mid-Atlantic school district teachers. Responding to three types of standards, 45 percent found…