Mandated, standardized national testing is being discussed as a means of improving education by holding schools accountable. Making schools genuinely accountable means involving teachers in developing assessment methods that measure what students know and can do. This approach ties assessment to instruction, improvement of practice, and the…

Summarizes the negative effects of high-stakes standardized testing, presents the national testing vision outlined by the National Education Goals Panel, and identifies curricular and technical problems needing resolution before the NEGP's vision can be realized. Negative effects include politically inflated scores, narrowed curricula, and…

Discusses one attempt to find innovative answers for questions regarding advanced English-as-a-Second-Language writing-placement testing. (MG)

Notes that the methods used to set standards for National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests suggest recommendations for state-level policymakers. Explains the national assessment, basic assumptions in setting performance standards on NAEP, selection of judges, standard-setting methodology for NAEP, and measurement issues in setting…

Research relating to the factor structure of the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) and the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire is reviewed. Different opinions about the factors measured by the 16PF are discussed. Focusing on the second-order factor level could eliminate problems with the instruments' reliability. (SLD)

Offers six Arizona teachers' comments on the new Arizona Student Assessment Program (ASAP). Discusses how the test affects children, whether the testing procedure is easily understood by teachers, how the ASAP differs from a standardized test, how the classroom teaching process has changed as a result of the test, concerns about the test, and…

The validity of the fourth edition of the Stanford-Binet (S-B IV) test was studied with 30 linguistically precocious children at ages 20, 24, and 30 months. Validity at 24 months was questionable. Problems in using the test with very young children are discussed. (SLD)

A key part of President Bush's America 2000 strategy for achieving national education goals involves developing national standards for five core subjects and a new voluntary nationwide examination system. The New Standards Project envisions a new generation of student assessments that require performance tasks instead of "multiple guess"…

A review of public demand for accountability uncovers three types of educational assessment problems: demand for valid reading measures, need for a broader range of assessments, and value of assessments for various audiences. Integration of the various types of assessments is recommended. (SK)

Educational reforms will not automatically have the same effects for native English speakers and English language learners (ELLs). Equitable assessment for ELLs must consider equity issues of assessment technologies, provide information on ELLs' developing language abilities and content-area achievement, and be comprehensive, flexible, progress…

Suggests that, to better gauge children's learning progress, teachers and schools should put less emphasis on standardized tests and more emphasis on continuous classroom assessment of students. (MDM)

This book is a collection of nine commissioned papers that consider the educational reform represented by performance assessments, their advantages and disadvantages, and the challenges of successful implementation. Both theoretical and practical issues are addressed. (SLD)

Whether the measurement of intelligence by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III (WISC-III) differs for children who exhibit inappropriate test-taking behavior was studied empirically with 247 inappropriate behavior and 515 appropriate behavior children. Results suggest that the factor index and full-scale IQ may have different meanings…

A professor submitted a passage on Native American literature for the reading comprehension section of a postgraduate standardized test. The passage (reproduced in full) points out the difficult questions that Native American literature poses about personal identity. The passage was rejected as potentially disturbing to Native American test…

Finds that the time required to attempt all the test items of each question paper in a four-paper sample was inversely proportional to the percentage of students who attempted all the test items of that paper. Extrapolates results to give guidelines for determining the feasibility of newly-developed exam papers. (WRM)