Presents principles behind the construction of English-as-Second-Language (ESL) standards for schools, drawing on examples of ESL standards developed in Australia, England, Wales, and the United States. Examines how differences in purposes in these standards--planning, professional understanding, and reporting--influence how ESL standards might…

Argues that Americans can learn from the wide variety of types of assessment included in French national evaluations, from the way these exams are used formatively on a large scale to plan instruction and professional development (rather than to pass or fail children or to reward or punish teachers), and from the hazards of a single high stakes…

Discusses the basic concepts of testing and item development and the application of alternative assessments to information literacy content for library instruction. Topics include reliability; validity; statistical analysis; selected response, including checklists, rank order, or simple match; constructed response; essays; and complex assessments.…

Examines the need to keep constant the optic, the framework within which AEI definitions are written. Both the Interagency Language Roundtable Language Skill Level Descriptions and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages guidelines are revised and more fully specified. (Author/JL)

Addresses a protracted struggle in Queensland about how to configure the relationship between language, literacy and textual studies in the English senior syllabus. Discusses a conflict between contrasting viewpoints about the nature and scope of subject English, the pedagogical stance that teachers should take in relation to their students, and…

Traces origins of competence-based approaches to management training in England, as a followup to implementing the Teacher Training Agency's National Standards for Headteachers, which inspired the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) and the Headteachers' Leadership and Management Programme (HEADLAMP). (Contains 81 references.)…

Reports five studies that provide initial insight into the black box of classroom testing. The studies investigate various aspects of perceptions and practices of assessment in the language classroom. (Author/VWL)

Statistical analysis tools in language testing are described, chiefly classical test theory and item response theory. Computer software for statistical analysis is briefly reviewed and divided into three tiers: commonly available; statistical packages; and specialty software. (Author/VWL)

Presents a collection of suggestions for using computers to enhance learning, including: creating a Webquest to help students recognize the tactics advertisers use; using the Internet to participate in a global water sampling project; creating, administering, and grading tests online; and going to a Cyrano de Bergerac Web site to compose a love…

Discusses how to tackle the problem of determining a meaningful score for yes-no tests used to measure the size of receptive vocabulary. Signal Detection Theory is applied, and a new more accurate index is suggested. (Author/VWL)

Reviews what is happening in examination systems that have begun to allow the use of Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) in externally set 'high stakes' assessment regimes. Discusses possible options for the future with the intention of developing a dialogue on how assessment with a CAS can help develop the mathematical literacy of students. (Author/MM)

Reports findings from a study in two stages to trial tests of vocabulary size in English as an additional language. The first stage trialled the Levels test and the Yes/No test. In the second, the Levels test was used with students aged 13 and 14 years. Results of the tests show a different profile of scores for EAL than occur in typical…

Argues for more responsible education accountability system. Builds on earlier work and presents alternative concepts that are more responsive to the purposes and functions of public schooling in a democratic society. Proposes ideas about good teaching and learning and the educational needs of students and their families, particularly in…

Discusses using students' native language (L1) versus second language in testing instruments for reading comprehension in the second language (L2) classroom. Students of college-level Spanish were tested under different conditions involving combinations of the L1 and L2. Suggests using open-ended reading comprehension tests if some questions are…

Discusses the relationship between the terms psycholinguistics and applied linguistics, and in the process explores key issues in multilingual processing, such as the structure of the bilingual lexicon, language choice in production and perception, and the language mode. (Author/VWL)