This literature review of teacher qualification standards consolidates information from various national groups and takes a historical approach to the development of current trends in such standards. We differentiate between teacher "qualifications" (the legal requirements for a credential) and teacher "quality" and summarize the stipulations of…

A number of health education professional associations exist to advance the profession through research, practice, and professional development. Benefits of individual membership may include continuing education, networking, leadership, professional recognition, advocacy, professional mobility, access to research findings, advances in the…

Higher learning organizations frequently offer courses isolated from other disciplines or areas of concentration. The intent of this study was to explore collaboration practices on authentic based projects involving two distinct courses from differing programs: Instructional Technology and Educational Leadership. This paper describes the…

The introduction of the SAT Reasoning Test™ with a writing section in March 2005 and the concomitant elimination of the SAT® Subject Test in Writing after January 2005 have led many colleges and institutions to ask for guidance in using the new SAT Reasoning Test writing section scores for college placement and admissions. Standard-setting…

This article describes and discusses the Bologna Process, an agreement among the education ministries and the universities and colleges of 45 European countries to create the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010. At the core of the agreement is the decision that all higher education institutions in Europe will adopt the three-tiered…

Introduction: This paper seeks to establish basic dimensions on which to construct a system of indicators for evaluating university quality, from the perspective of pupils, and within the framework offered by the European Space for Higher Education. Method: The population for this study was defined as the set of students enrolled at the…

The contrasting groups method is one of many possible methods for setting passing scores. The most commonly used method is probably that developed by W. H. Angoff (1971), but it has been suggested that the Angoff method may not be appropriate for many standard setting applications in education. The contrasting groups method is explored as an…

This publication presents the American Federation of Teachers' 10 criteria for high-quality public school academic standards and seeks to contribute to the national debate about school reform, academic achievement, and world-class educational standards. The criteria are: (1) standards must focus on academics because the purpose of setting…

The Cherry Creek School district (Englewood, Colorado) is a growing district of 37,000 students in the Denver area. The 1988 Colorado State School Finance Act required district-set proficiencies (standards), and forced agreement on a set of values for student knowledge and skills. State-adopted standards added additional requirements for the…

The "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" (1985) and the "Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures" (1978) provide no clear guidance on choosing methods for setting standards on teacher certification tests, although they require that practices be well-documented and produce reasonable results, and…

In most judgmental methods for setting performance standards, content experts evaluate test items based on a conceptualization of a borderline examinee or a group of examinees. An alternative method is proposed by which judges evaluate items based on the degree of criticality regardless of content area. This classification of items serves to link…

The American Nurses' Association certification provides professional recognition beyond licensure to nurses who pass an examination. To determine the passing score as it would be set by a representative peer group, a survey was mailed to a random sample of 200 recently certified nurses. Three questions were asked: (1) what percentage of examinees…

In order to evaluate standard setting procedures, apart from the more commonly applied approach of simply comparing the derived standards or failure rates across various techniques, this study investigated the errors of classification associated with the contrasting groups procedures. Monte Carlo simulations were employed to produce…

Kansas law requires setting passing scores for the reading and mathematics competency test for 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 11th grade students, administered annually since April of 1980. New objective-referenced tests are prepared each year. Both judgmental (Angoff, Ebel, and Nedelsky) methods and empirical (contrasting groups and borderline) methods…

This study examined whether two variations on the typical Angoff group standard-setting process would produce sufficiently consistent results to recommend their use. The results imply that judgments gathered after an initial traditional group-process session can provide an efficient alternative mechanism for setting cutting scores using the Angoff…