The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to compare reasoning level, American College Test (ACT) science, process skills, and physical science misconceptions of preservice elementary and secondary science teachers and to investigate gender differences. The stratified randomly drawn sample (n=68) consisted of preservice elementary and…

The state of Illinois recently has required state goals for learning to be identified and assessed in the following areas of learning: language arts, mathematics, biological and physical sciences, social sciences, fine arts, and physical development and health. The Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) is designed to assess the progress made…

The relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement of at-risk adolescent black males was studied for 42 students in grades 6, 7, and 8. The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI) was used to provide global measures of self-esteem. School grades and scores from the Stanford Achievement Test battery were used to measure academic…

The National Council for the Social Studies is concerned with how the social studies teaching profession can enhance learning in history and the social sciences and develop the skills necessary for participatory citizenship. The purpose of this position statement is to demonstrate how testing and evaluating social studies students can contribute…

A preliminary discussion is presented of the advantages and disadvantages of the comprehensive assessment system used to complement the National Curriculum that is being introduced in England and Wales as part of the 1988 Education Reform Act. Some of the early findings of the Primary Assessment, Curriculum, and Experience (PACE) study are also…

Descriptive statements of evaluation practices by principals were studied concerning normative expectations and J. Dewey's general logic of experience. Focus was on describing what principals think and do in terms of evaluation as a step toward bringing evaluation specialists and educational practitioners into a closer working relationship. Four…

Whatever the cause of present-day problems in American education, there is little doubt that proposals for national curricula and examinations are a response to widely-held perceptions of serious problems in the schools. Although national examinations have been proposed, there has been little consideration of their purposes and structures. The…

Findings of a study that sought to determine teachers' and principals' perceptions concerning state-mandated testing are presented in this paper. Data were gathered through interviews with 30 fifth- and sixth-grade teachers and 12 principals in 3 states--Tennessee, Illinois, and New York--where statewide testing has been implemented for 30 years,…

This study explored the relationship between test anxiety and metacognitive word knowledge on performance on a reading comprehension test. One hundred and seventeen college students completed four paper and pencil measures: (1) a self-report measure of test anxiety; (2) an archival test of reading ability; (3) a metacognitive word knowledge task;…

Aspirations for the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988 and more recent accountability efforts for the central office indicate that the Chicago Public School (CPS) system needs a credible system for charting academic improvement. The annual systemwide reports of student test scores are crude and sometimes seriously biased indicators for making…

The design and effectiveness of the Amigos program, a two-way Spanish-English bilingual immersion program in Cambridge (Massachusetts) are described. In the program, half the instruction is in English, half in Spanish from kindergarten through eighth grade. Half the students are native Spanish-speakers and half are native English-speakers. The…

This paper describes the processes that one school district, the Visalia Unified School District (California), went through in establishing a standards-based assessment and accountability system using multiple methods. First the district's standards-based assessment and accountability system and the methods used to establish it are described, and…

The selection of students qualified for teacher education has many facets, only some of which are addressed by standardized tests and college grades. The purpose of the present study was to examine the American College Testing (ACT) Program Assessment, Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST), and college grade point average (GPA) as predictors of…

Lessons learned in changing a large-scale testing program are outlined. The redesigned Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) will be administered in spring 1994. Major changes for the verbal SAT section include more emphasis on critical reading, longer and more accessible passages, measurement of vocabulary in context, and use of double passages with two…

The effects of standardized testing on schools and on the teaching and learning processes within schools were studied using responses from upper elementary school teachers in matched pairs from 11 medium-to-large school districts in 9 states. In all, 341 teachers responded to a 136-item questionnaire prepared for the study that explored the amount…