Discussed are the procedures implemented in the Orleans Parish Schools in response to the Louisiana state-mandated promotional testing program (Act 750, 1979), and concerns regarding its value. Recent findings raise fundamental questions about whether an exclusively skills-focused curriculum in the early years provides the needed grounding in…

The Center for the Study of Evaluation's (CSE) Test Use Project (1979) has gathered information that is nationally representative and illustrative of the entire range of tests being administered. The primary intention of this phase of the ongoing study is to identify the direct and indirect costs of testing. The four papers included here offer…

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…

An annotated bibliography on minimum competency testing is arranged by subtopics: overview; basic skills; compensatory education; competencies; cost effectiveness; curriculum; district programs; graduation requirements; handicapped students; legal aspects; readiness; reading; writing; state programs; teacher education; tests; math; and testing.…

Little is known about the costs of setting up and implementing legislated minimal competency testing (MCT). To estimate the financial obstacles which lie between the idea and its implementation, MCT requirements are viewed from two perspectives. The first, government regulation, views legislated minimal competency requirements as an attempt by the…

Proficiency testing, the measurement of what a person can do as a result of learning, is used increasingly in higher education to determine whether students have mastered basic skills or whether they deserve credits for specific courses (which they may not have actually taken). The motivation for proficiency testing stems from general…