The 1992-93 school year marked the first year of implementation of the statewide mandate of the Arizona Student Assessment Program (ASAP), which revised previous legislation. Iowa Test of Basic Skills testing requirements were restricted to grades 2 and 7, and districts were allowed greater flexibility in their own testing, which had previously…

The educational assessment quality assurance and control practices of Germany, Sweden, France, New Zealand, and Australia are compared to illustrate the considerable variety of approaches and some of the social factors that contribute to this variety. In Germany there is considerable variation from one province to another, and quality assurance…

This document describes activities and presents recommendations of the National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE) for fiscal year 1989. NACIE activities included: (1) development of regulations and administrative practices and policies; (2) review of applications for assistance under the Indian Education Act of 1988; (3) evaluation of…

The state of Illinois recently has required state goals for learning to be identified and assessed in the following areas of learning: language arts, mathematics, biological and physical sciences, social sciences, fine arts, and physical development and health. The Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) is designed to assess the progress made…

The accountability testing programs of many states have begun to make extensive use of constructed-response questions and to report test results in terms of percentages of students at various proficiency or performance levels. This paper describes the step-by-step procedures for two standard-setting methods recently used for the New Hampshire…

Hodgson Vocational Technical High School, New Castle County (Delaware), has recently converted from being a shared-time vocational center to being a full-time academic-vocational-technical school. As part of its restructuring, the school instituted a Senior Project, a three-part authentic assessment that combines a research paper, a shop product,…

Effects of introducing performance-based assessments into the classroom were studied by examining instruction, student learning, and teacher attitudes and practices. As part of the larger study, workshops were conducted with third-grade teachers from three schools engaged in constructing performance assessments of literacy. Data from transcripts…

This paper reports on many aspects of an in-progress Scottish national effort to improve curriculum, assessment, and progress reports on students ages 5 through 14. The 5-14 Development Program was launched in 1987, and this paper reports information from the first two years of operation. The study not only evaluates progress to date but also…

Intended for teacher educators, educators working daily with at-risk students, and human services specialists, this book operates from the premises that: (1) at-risk children and adolescents deserve the attention of professionals; (2) at-risk conditions and behaviors can be identified and their effects assessed; (3) effective programs and…

Designed to provide Quebec's community colleges with more precise information and a better understanding of their educational options, this report presents a description and analysis of the educational systems for the 12th through 14th years of schooling in England, France, Germany, Norway, the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Ontario,…

This literature review and evaluation "tool kit" provides a summary of the research literature about the evaluation of large-scale intervention policies like the Blueprint for the Future program of the Scarborough (Ontario, Canada) Board of Education. This report is intended to assist in creating a realistic plan for the Blueprint…

This report summarizes a variety of major collaborations in which the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) of the University of California at Los Angeles participated in Fiscal Year 1992. Most of the collaborations are part of the CRESST's Program One, "Building the Infrastructure for Improved…

Maternal and professional perspectives on the developmental, behavioral, and ecological status of children with disabilities and their families were compared, specifically examining the degree of congruence between maternal and professional estimates on various measures designed to assess child and family status. A review of 37 studies helped…

Cognitive theory and research are relevant to vocational education. Three theoretical perspectives underlie cognitive theory-based curriculum and instruction: information processing, knowledge structure, and social history. A review of these perspectives in vocational curriculum and instruction suggests that instruction supporting higher-level…

A preliminary discussion is presented of the advantages and disadvantages of the comprehensive assessment system used to complement the National Curriculum that is being introduced in England and Wales as part of the 1988 Education Reform Act. Some of the early findings of the Primary Assessment, Curriculum, and Experience (PACE) study are also…