The National Commission on Testing and Public Policy is conducting a 3-year policy-oriented investigation of the role of tests, especially standardized, norm-referenced tests, in the allocation of educational, training, and employment opportunities in the United States today. This document reports on the first hearing, which focused on the…

This report presents the results of a New Jersey school district field test of a comprehensive administrator training program. The program's main objectives were to develop a knowledge-utilization approach to the improvement of instruction and student achievement in basic skills, and to develop and test strategies for installing and disseminating…

Fourth, seventh, and ninth grade students in Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I programs were tested with the reading comprehension subtests of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, at each of two levels: on-level for each respective grade, and an easier out-of-level form. Approximately half of these students were found to be…

An achievement testing framework is being developed by the Los Angeles Unified School District to assess the educational progress of 14,000 secondary level compensatory education students with something other than standardized tests. The technique of multiple matrix sampling was applied to the use of large item domains in the subject area of…

The nine articles presented in this yearbook were drawn from Arizona State University's Annual Reading Conference which focused on new directions in reading. Four of the articles deal with evaluation techniques in reading and include discussions of developing culture-fair informal reading inventories, what oral language tests really measure, and…

Assessment instruments for use with adult learners are summarized; findings of a test use survey of 163 California districts serving adult students are given; and management techniques for administering large and small group tests are suggested. Forms for the evaluation of test instruments and for an assessment survey are appended. Tests reviewed…

The focus of educational measurement in higher education in the 1980's is discussed: (1) better evaluation of student achievement; (2) improved communication of measurement results to various audiences; (3) evaluation of undergraduate educational programs; and (4) systematic assessment of the educational needs of college-bound students. In…

The reading portion of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) was equated to the reading comprehension subtest of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) using the Rasch Model. Both tests were administered to 366 low achieving fourth grade students. MEAP was treated as both a 95-item test and a 19-item (number of objectives…

This compendium of over 250 evaluation instruments in use by project sites throughout the U.S. is designed to assist bilingual/bicultural educators in locating, developing, or adapting evaluation instruments suitable to local assessment needs. The titles and descriptions of instruments listed are those provided by staff in bilingual/bicultural…

Presented is a two-part study which represents a broadly based effort to assess the consequences of federal compensatory funds being targeted toward elementary students showing low achievement rather than only to those who were first low income and then low achieving. Part 1 deals with the technical issues of suitability, feasibility, and cost…

This paper presents the latest in a series of studies examining school district report cards for their usefulness planning and implementing school improvement. The 1992-93 Arkansas report cards were studied. These were similar to the report cards from Tennessee that were the subject of the initial study in that they used and reported a…

This manual is intended to assist assessment and teaching personnel in assessing and developing instructional plans for special needs students from early school to independent living and employment. It contains 10 chapters. The following topics are discussed in the first nine chapters: the purpose of career assessment; ethical issues…

Procedures for establishing the cutoff scores for the occupational competency exams administered to individuals graduating from Pennsylvania vocational teacher education programs were reviewed. A total of 595 National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) Exams administered in 43 occupations or trades at three colleges between the…

American education is not as inadequate as public opinion indicates. The literacy and skill of American youth are higher today than forty years ago because of our high achievement standards and commitment to equal educational opportunity. These opposing principles have been reconciled by the diversity encouraged in institutions, teachers, and…

This review covers a time span from 1922 to 1980. It examines the link that exists between assessment and teaching. After discussing the milieu in which the two take place, the remainder of the review addresses four questions: (1) how do teachers use test information for instructional decisions?; (2) what has research indicated about the linkage…