This digest is designed to provide information to Texas testing coordinators, other educators, and interested citizens about the development procedures and technical attributes of the state-mandated criterion-referenced assessment program. The chapters are: (1) "Background"; (2) "Test Development"; (3) "Test…

This technical manual provides all major existing information about the technical characteristics of the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS). The assessment component of the Kentucky Education Reform Act Accountability System was in use between 1991-92 and 1993-94 and was referred to as Cycle One. Two sets of test…

This technical manual provides information about the technical characteristics of the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS), the assessment component of the Kentucky Education Reform Act Accountability System. The time period covered is Accountability Cycle 2, which spanned the school years 1992-93 through 1995-96. Sections of…

The percent and characteristics of children who produced invalid profiles on two different continuous performance tests (CPTs) tasks were examined. Sixty-one children referred for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessment and 24 non-clinical control children (all children ages 5-16) were given the Test of Variables of Attention…

This paper studied the usefulness of differential item functioning (DIF) methodology for examining potential mode effects. Although the goal was not to validate the comparability of the assessments per se, it is of interest to speculate why some formats could give rise to differential performance. Data were obtained from two instruments on which…

In response to the greatly increased use of statewide high stakes testing, the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented at the University of Virginia developed differentiated authentic assessments for middle school classroom use that embodied key concepts, principles, generalizations, and processes in the disciplines of English/language…

This book, designed as an introductory text in educational measurement, presents comprehensive and balanced coverage of all aspects of assessment relevant to classroom teachers, including construction and use of paper-and-pencil and alternative assessments. This edition expands the coverage of alternative assessments and includes a chapter on the…

An overview of LEAP (Learning Environments for Accelerated Progress) project outcomes draws data from original scoring protocols developed by the LEAP project. These scoring protocols (or "measures") were developed to assess students' progress in the composition of three text genres: narrative, expert, and explanation. Initial analyses…

This paper considers the influence of the values and the discourse behaviors of the native-speaking assessor as interlocutor. These variables in the assessments of oral proficiency interrelate in complex ways with features of test design such as tasks, prompts, topics, guidelines, and assessor training. This paper reviews some previous studies,…

The Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbances (SAED) is a standardized, norm-referenced scale used to identify children who qualify for the federal special education category of "emotional disturbance". It uses the five conditions on which identification of emotional disturbance is based under the Individuals with Disabilities Education…

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validity of a performance assessment program, the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP). Based on analyses of the longitudinal associations of Grade 5 MSPAP data in 1996 with Grade 3 MSPAP data in 1994, the following hypothesis was examined: the unattentuated correlation or…

This paper provides an overview of the types of testing accommodations used for students with disabilities and presents arguments for and against their use. It begins by discussing student participation in educational assessments and federal requirements concerning the participation of students with disabilities. The types of accommodations are…

This study explored the perspectives of high school students, high school teachers, undergraduate and graduate students in preservice teacher education programs, and university professors about how a high school teacher assigns grades. The study also asked whether these different groups gave more or less weight to completing an assigned task than…

The reliability and developmental and concurrent validity of the Writing What You Read (WWYR) rubric, designed for use with paper and pen, for hypermedia-authored narrative productions of students in grades 2 and 3 were studied. Sixty students from 4 classrooms produced hypermedia narratives (interactive multimedia presentations) that were rated…

This study investigated the reliability and developmental and concurrent validity of the Writing What You Read (WWYR) rubric, an instrument originally designed for use with paper-and-pen-created narratives, for hypermedia productions of students in grades 2 and 3. Four teachers guided their students in a 3-month-long hypermedia/process writing…