For Blacks and Hispanics, standardized admission tests and licensing exams are barriers to schools and occupations. Case studies are presented of college admission tests and teacher testing that place women and minorities at a disadvantage. Test biases and misuse must be eliminated and new forms of evaluation must be developed. (VM)

A study of possible test bias in the Arabic and Hebrew versions of a standardized scholastic aptitude test used in Israel found a slight overprediction of performance for Arabs, but the findings appear to be more consistent with psychometric than cultural bias. (Author/MSE)

Articles in this series on testing and evaluation specifically address the use of tests to assess and improve educational status; achievement test selection; and trend toward increased use of coaching materials to improve test performance. Professional literature on educational measurement is reviewed. (MBR)

This study analyzed the Tertiary Admission Examination and Australian Scholastic Aptitude Test results for 264 pairs of 17-year-old monozygotic and dizygotic twins in Western Australia to determine if examination performance is influenced by environmental or genetic factors. Purely environmental models are rejected as inadequate explanations of…

Proposes that objective-referenced tests replace norm-referenced tests as a vehicle for program evaluation. Describes a methodology, based on latent trait theory, for joining norm-referenced and objective-referenced testing in a customized testing program. (TE)

This user-friendly guide offers advice and insight on developing defensible identification procedures and services for gifted and talented students. Special attention is given to the use of multiple methods including qualitative and quantitative assessments such as standardized measures (e.g. intelligence, aptitude, and achievement tests),…

This report presents the results of the 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment for the nation and for the participating states and jurisdictions. Comparisons are made to students' performance in the national assessments of 1992, 1994, and 1998 at grades 4, 8, and 12. Comparison data are given within and across…

This report highlights the results of the 2002 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade reading assessment for the nation. Results in 2002 are compared to previous NAEP reading assessments. It describes assessment content; presents major findings as average scale scores and percentages of students…

The topic of high-stakes testing (HST) is important because HST has direct and indirect effects on career-technical education (CTE) programs and timely because HST increasingly enters public discussion and has produced a large body of research and practice that generalizes to CTE. A review of HST has identified two persisting dilemmas: policy and…

The purpose of this research project was to determine if online learning could be adapted to individual learning styles and if this made a difference in the standardized testing scores of Internet students. An overview is provided of current learning theories, including the four stages of learning (exposure, guided learning, independent, mastery)…

This WisKids Count data book provides a statistical portrait of K-12 education in the state of Wisconsin. The introduction to the data book examines financing of education, including special education, and the issue of financing private education with public dollars; barriers to school success, including mobility and racial disparities; what…

This fourth in a four-part series on why academic achievement gaps exist describes the Minority Achievement Committee scholars program at Shaker Heights High School in Cleveland, Ohio, a powerful antidote to the achievement gap between minority and white and Asian American students. It explains the need to break down stereotypes about academic…

In this article, we review some of the ways socioeconomic status has been measured on assessments and the issues associated with measuring SES of students, issues which are not limited to statistical concerns. We also present possible proxy measures that could be used as a means of potentially overcoming some of the problems with current measures…

The purpose of this report is to provide technical information about the 1996 State Assessment in Mathematics. It provides a description of the design for the State Assessment and gives an overview of the steps involved in the implementation of the program from the planning stages through to the analysis and reporting of the data. The report…

This report looks at the extent to which it was possible, using data from 1994 and 1995, to provide value-added scores for schools in three Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in England. The number of terms students spend in school and their academic progress are reviewed, and the responses of the LEAs to the summary of issues related to…