The Board on Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council convened a workshop in 1994 to help policymakers and others better understand the complex issues emerging from the standards-based educational reform movement. This bulletin synthesizes the workshop discussions. It is organized around four major themes that emerged from the…

In this digest a rationale is given for using open-ended questions in the assessment of student achievement, the use of open-ended questions in reading is discussed, and some implications for the classroom are outlined. Research has helped shift the focus from learning as content knowledge per se to learning as the ability to use and interpret…

As part of a symposium on issues related to diversity and American education reform in the context of Goal 3 of the National Education Goals, this paper summarizes the general educational achievement of Asian American students (excluding Pacific Islanders). The diversity of the group is discussed and it is noted that simple generalizations do not…

The quality of fit between the data and the measurement model is fundamental to any discussion of results. Fit has been the subject of inquiry since as early as the 1920s. Most early explorations concentrated on assessing global fit or subset fits on fixed length, traditional paper and pencil tests given as a single unit. The detection of aberrant…

Most current writing about American public education describes it in terms of a crisis situation. However, schools often serve as scapegoats for the failure of other institutions and for social ills that they had no part in creating. This book presents a collection of essays and commentaries on recent proposals for educational reform and actions…

Although experiential education is really the oldest approach to learning, its practitioners have not had an easy time justifying its relevance in the modern educational world. Recent changes in the methodologies of evaluation have provided useful tools for experiential educators. Such tools can be used to refine programming, enhance student…

In 1991, the Southeastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE), a federally funded education laboratory, began a study to identify the barriers to school reform in six southeastern states--Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina. This document presents findings of that study and the second area of study it…

New methods are needed to judge the quality of alternative student assessment, methods which complement the philosophy underlying authentic assessments. This paper examines assumptions underlying validity, reliability, and objectivity, and why they are not matched to authentic assessment, concentrating on the constructivist paradigm of E. Guba and…

Trends in performance assessments across the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, and Illinois were explored through the development, administration, and analysis of an interstate survey. These four states were selected to represent the diversity of state-mandated testing programs relative to emphasis placed on performance assessment.…

In this report, Kentucky's goals for learning are outlined, in terms that can be assessed. Part 1 provides an overview of events that facilitated the redefinition of statewide learning goals. The second part presents valued outcomes for each of the state's six educational goals: students will apply basic communication and mathematics skills to…

An overview of the achievements and limitations in British school effectiveness research is provided in this paper. In contrast to educational research conducted in the United States, school effectiveness and school improvement disciplines in Great Britain have only begun to emerge within the last 13 years. Topics discussed in this study include…

Government pressures for universities to demonstrate greater efficiency while maintaining the quality of their activities have resulted in a range of performance indicators being adopted. However, questions of quality in teaching, learning, and research are hardly addressed by these indicators. Instead, more tangible measures of input and output…

Implications of the educational reform movement's emphasis on testing and assessment are considered as they touch on at-risk students. The four dimensions that must be considered in addressing the assessment of at-risk student populations are (1) antecedent instructional conditions; (2) type of test or assessment; (3) social and educational…

The search for indicators of quality for colleges and universities was initiated during the past decade and many variants of these efforts have emerged in Europe, Australia, and on the North American continent. In the financial squeeze of the 1980s and 1990s, demands for quality and excellence in the conduct of higher education have continued to…

Use of the School Climate and Context Inventory (SCCI) as a measure of school climate was investigated. The SCCI had previously been used as a measure of climate in a study of six rural high schools in Kentucky and Tennessee; in the current study, the SCCI was administered to 20 faculty members from each school. Split-half correlation and…