Straightforward, practical, and user friendly, this unique guide addresses an essential component of decision making in schools. The authors show how systematic screenings of behavior--used in conjunction with academic data--can enhance teachers' ability to teach and support all students within a response-to-intervention framework. Chapters review…

States and districts across the country are grappling with how to incorporate assessments of student learning into their teacher evaluation systems. Sophisticated statistical models have been proposed to estimate the relative value individual teachers add to their students' assessment performance (hence the term teacher "value-added" measures).…

States and districts across the country are grappling with how to incorporate assessments of student learning into their teacher evaluation systems. Sophisticated statistical models have been proposed to estimate the relative value individual teachers add to their students' assessment performance (hence the term teacher "value-added" measures).…

Recently, educational researchers and practitioners have turned to value-added models to evaluate teacher performance. Although value-added estimates depend on the assessment used to measure student achievement, the importance of outcome selection has received scant attention in the literature. Using data from a large, urban school district, I…

In choosing between criterion-referenced and norm-referenced measurement strategy we should consider the nature of the decisions to be based on the resulting scores. If the decision involves selecting some fixed quota from the high (or low) end of an available competence continuum, then norm-referenced measurement is indicated. If, however, the…

"Classroom Assessment in Action" clarifies the multi-faceted roles of measurement and assessment and their applications in a classroom setting. Comprehensive in scope, Shermis and Di Vesta explain basic measurement concepts and show students how to interpret the results of standardized tests. From these basic concepts, the authors then…

It is suggested that funders revise the manner in which accountability is determined regarding both program superiority and the way in which special school programs are evaluated. In any alternative mode of showing accountability, preoccupation with dollars and amount learned should not take precedence over humaneness in the classroom. (Author)

This handbook for training program evaluators provides background information and practice activities in the following areas: (1) measurement: purposes, ideals, possibilities; (2) defining measurement domains; (3) person and item sampling; (4) test and item selection--with a selected list of standardized tests with pertinent information on each,…

Educators are more interested in instruction and learning than in testing per se. If evaluation, the process of gathering information for instructional improvement, could be accomplished without the quantitative, formal processes of measurement and testing, there would be no need for them. Unfortunately, informal processes are more inefficient,…

This booklet describes an alternative approach to testing the mathematical abilities of elementary school students. The booklet is highly critical of the use of standardized tests for many purposes, and both the introduction and an appendix are devoted to those criticisms. This project for Tests of Reasonable Quantitative Understanding of the…

Measurement is presented here as a means of enabling health and physical education programs to assume their place as indispensible phases of the educational process. Measurement is considered vital to health and physical education programs; teachers in these fields are admonished to turn to measurement activities as readily and as naturally as…

The increased attention to measuring career skills has resulted in more instrument development, more testing of students, and more test administrators. There are three key areas of concern. The first area is that of identifying purposes to be served by assessing career skills. Purposes include permitting descriptions of the current status of…

The purpose of this research study was to illustrate the ways in which out-of-level testing policies have changed over the three years from 2000-2001 to 2003-2004. In 2000-2001, 12 states were using out-of-level tests to measure student progress toward content standard proficiency. A detailed research study conducted at the end of 2000-2001 to…

This report presents recommendations for measures to be used in assessing the impact of Project Developmental Continuity (PDC). Chapter I reviews the purpose of the impact study and presents the basic considerations guiding the selection of measures. Chapter II describes the review process that led to the final recommendations. Chapter III…

Abstracts are presented of the major conference papers and thematic discussions delivered at the 1978 Measurement and Methodology Conference. The titles of the presentations are: Policy-Responsive Evaluation (Wiley); When Educators Set Standards (Glass); Comments on Wiley and Glass (Schutz); Key Standard-Setting Considerations for Minimal…