This review of assessment strategies for handicapped populations is intended to provide counselors with assessment perspectives as well as specific suggestions. The review emphasizes the counselor's role as a member of a diagnostic team and the need to consider a variety of information in formation of meaningful intervention strategies. (Author)

A defense of testing is given. The author examines opposition to and criticism of testing, and discusses teaching to the test, effects on curricula, and test bias. (MK)

Discusses origins and organization of technical engineering schools in Belgium, the development of higher technical education, industrial colleges, legislation affecting technical education, and considerations on the future of industrial colleges. Journal availability: see SO 507 243. (Author/DB)

Presents an early childhood program evaluation procedure based on principles of ecological psychology in which the natural behavior of children in the program setting constitutes the criteria for determining program quality. (CM)

This article presents a 28-item checklist to help teachers examine their philosophy about the goals and instructional content of social studies. Scoring information is included. (AV)

Defines the history, role, and methods of the NAEP in carrying out educational assessment in the United States. (RK) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Program Description (Operating Procedures).

A recent project in higher education in which evidence of falsification was found is described along with two other projects that demonstrate the possibility for falsification. An advantage of standardized questionnaires and machine techniques for scoring and reporting is the low cost, but the need to detect and prevent falsification raises…

A survey of 54 graduate schools identified the content of training received by educational measurement specialists during their graduate educations. Forty-three programs offer master's degrees, with 14 focusing specifically on educational measurement. Students received basic skills and knowledge of statistical methods, measurement, and research…

Discusses the challenges in evaluating gifted programs and the limitations of current evaluation instruments. Describes the overreliance on self-evaluation assessments, and stresses the need for both qualitative and quantitative data that measure program effectiveness and student growth in order to ward off program budget cuts. (CR)

Social changes will lead to changes in educational assessment, which will become more important as part of the learning process, focus more on mastery of skills, and feature different approaches and forms of educational technology. Assessment can be used to change educational systems to develop students who are capable of learning how to learn.…

Progress of 12 lecturers through a competency-based inservice teacher training program showed great variation in the processes used to collect evidence for assessment of competence and in methods used to support learning, raising questions about professional competence standards. Factors contributing to progress included peer group and tutor…

The integration of assessment, learning, and instruction are discussed, focusing on the importance of students' prior knowledge. A literature review and analysis of 128 studies provide support for the assertion that assessment has an important impact on instruction and learning. Positive effects were found for progress assessment. (SLD)