A study investigated the utility of a measure for assessing the writing apprehension of Japanese students of English as a second language. The Daly-Miller questionnaire, designed to measure writing apprehension, was translated into Japanese and administered to 687 first- and second-year students of English at a Japanese junior college. Results…

This workbook is one of six professional development manuals prepared by experienced adult assessment staff to help new adult education (AE) instructors understand how to administer and interpret standardized tests and how such standardized tests can provide one basis for instructional placement and curriculum choices. It also provides information…

Noting that performance at the highest levels of achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is evidence that students have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter and achieved the third National Educational Goal, this report presents the most up-to-date results in reading achievement for the states and…

This study provides some evidence of significant differences between the Redundancy and Bottom-to-Top Models in sequencing four-semester elementary and intermediate Spanish courses using the ACT Spanish Test Form 1 as the dependent variable. T-test results of independent samples (unequal variances model) were 0.056. Results also indicated that…

Current educational reforms can be described as top-down, heavy-handed, and test driven. But they are not based on research about how children learn best or how they become enthusiastic, competent, and independent thinkers for life. Such accepted practices as grading, grouping by age, and teaching to pass standardized tests are completely at odds…

Three guides provide sample problems like the ones students would solve on the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests. For each question, the pertinent Colorado state standard is identified. The ninth grade guide contains questions in reading, writing and mathematics; the guide to the 10th grade examination also contains questions related to…

Standardized testing plays an increasingly important role in the lives of today's students and educators. The U.S. No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires assessment in math and literacy in grades 3-8 and 10 and, as of 2007-08, in science once in grades 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12. Based on National Center for Education Statistics enrollment projections,…

In their constant groping toward achievement standards, the high schools of this country have developed what is known as "cooperative testing." This development is not recent. Cooperative testing dates back further than the standardized testing movement itself. For instance, it has been customary for about 50 years in New York and in…

The SAT is designed to measure the verbal and math reasoning abilities of high school juniors and seniors. These abilities develop over a long period of time and are independent of a particular school curriculum. The performance of seventh and eighth graders on the SAT is amazing, especially when considering their age. Although these students do,…

Examines potential sources of bias in aptitude and achievement testing of minority and, particularly, Black students. Holds that bias in standardized tests cannot be properly understood without reference to the socioeconomic matrix from which it has evolved. (Author/GC)

A variety of methods for testing students' Russian language proficiency before, during, and after study in the Soviet Union are compared and discussed, including U.S. government-developed and other standardized examinations, interviews versus written methods, pretests-posttests, and testing emphases and problems. (MSE)

Efforts to improve the reliability or prediction in dental school admissions by combining several preprofessional academic averages and selected nongraded personal attributes into a single admission index score are outlined. Use of the index is also proposed for use in monitoring less-qualified students' progress. (Author/MSE)

Criticism of the use of standardized tests in postsecondary education centers on: using test scores as the sole or main criterion for admission; scoring practices used for normative or grading functions rather than for diagnosis; and tracking students into different types of postsecondary institutions. (MH)

State higher education coordination bodies, it is suggested, should recognize experiential learning either through their policies or their programs. The way in which New York has encouraged experiential learning through three programs and through their activities as a nationally recognized accrediting body is discussed. (Author/MLW)

The theory of culturally biased test scores is discussed, in terms of both the Bakke case and the theory's broader societal implications. Literature addressing the problem of test bias is reviewed. Remedies for predictive invalidity are proposed. The importance of thorough documentation in court litigation concerning this issue is stressed.…