Describes experiences of two elementary math teachers, whose dynamic, hands-on teaching techniques were at odds with components of the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS). Despite these teachers' successful efforts, the new Commonwealth Accountability and Testing System (CATS) replacing KIRIS will not contain portfolios. (12…

For many years there has been concern about whether sex bias exists in various assessments. A literature review reveals little if any sex bias in UK national assessments at GCSE. Oxford, Cambridge and RSA examiners, for three case study subjects, completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory, a self-report inventory that measures the extent to which…

Existing research indicates that there is a disproportionate number of students with cultural and linguistic differences, English Language Learners (ELL), who are misidentified as learning disabled when their problems are due to cultural and/or linguistic differences. As a consequence, these students do not receive appropriate services. With the…

It is well known among scholars and practitioners that stress and anxiety responses are genuine scientifically measurable reactions to a perceived stressor. It is also common knowledge that high levels of stress and anxiety have a multitude of negative psycho-physiological effects. These effects can contribute to the development of depression and…

"Background": There are very few formal language assessments aimed at the very severely neurologically impaired individual. These individuals often have multiple deficits on top of their communication impairment that demand a novel approach to assessment. The authors set out to devise a tool (PASWORD) to enable professionals in this field to…

Professionals often seem to view guidelines, standards, and the like, not to mention legal mandates, as adding to their work load. It is argued that a widely promulgated set of test taker rights would actually make the work of personnel selection professionals easier. The California court case Soroka v. Dayton-Hudson Corporation, in which test…

Two procedures were developed to determine whether examinees in a given test center were affected by a testing irregularity on the Listening Comprehension section of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). One approach employed analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) on Listening Comprehension (Section 1) means using scores on Structure and…

This paper addresses the problem of how to place students in a sequence of hierarchically related courses from an (empirical) Bayesian point of view. Based on a minimal set of assumptions, it is shown that optimal mastery rules for the courses are always monotone and a nonincreasing function of the scores on the placement test. On the other hand,…

This paper addresses the educational, technical, legal, and practical challenges states must confront as they consider the content of the assessment, its technical quality, the capacity of educators and the public to use the results of the assessment, the benefits and additional complications of performance testing, and the overall tension betwen…

The National Assessment Governing Board and the National Center for Education Statistics sponsored a Joint Conference on Standard Setting for Large-Scale Assessments to provide a forum for technical and policy issues relevant to setting standards at local, state, and national levels. Volume I contains an executive summary of the conference and…

An evaluation of Round One of a pilot study of a system for identifying effective youth organizations around the world is presented in this report. The report begins with a page of general observations about the successes and shortcomings of the pilot study, indicating that in general the study accomplished its objectives but that a need for…

It has been argued that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) underestimates student achievement because the assessment has no consequences for the students, their teachers, or for their schools. This study was conducted to determine whether differences in test administration conditions and presumed levels of motivation engendered…

The purpose of this research was to compare two different forms of a placement test in French as a second language at the post-secondary level, a conventional test and a computerized test. First, expectations regarding a placement test as a measure of general proficiency are discussed and principles of adaptive testing that have been used to…

Although standardized testing is increasingly prominent in the United States, the testing industry has not received much attention. The industry and the market for standardized tests are examined, emphasizing the fragmented nature of the market. After an introduction, Chapter 2 describes the testing marketplace, and Chapter 3 reviews evidence on…

This paper offers a scenario for how educational assessment might change in response to market forces that affect not only the future of large-scale testing but also society in general. The scenario divides into three generations distinguished by the purpose of testing, test format and content, and the extent to which testing capitalizes on new…