The current status of education for 1992 is presented in the form of education "indicators"--key data that measure the health of education, monitor important developments, and show trends in major aspects of education. The 60 indicators have been divided into 6 areas: (1) access, participation, and progress; (2) achievement, attainment,…

The work of the Assessment Development Laboratory (ADL) at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) in developing an assessment for identifying accomplished teachers of English language arts to young adolescents (aged 11 to 15 years) for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is reviewed. The assessment is meant to…

In 1991, the Maryland State Board for Community Colleges developed the "success rate," a reporting index which combined graduation, transfer, and persistence rates. Success rate matrices were produced by tracking first-time, full-time students representing seven cohorts (1980 to 1986) over a 4-year period, and matching entering…

This publication, the result of a series of conferences held between April and October 1989, is a guide to assessing the competence of prospective art teachers in the California public schools. The guide was developed as part of a state-wide response to legislated entry and exit standards for teachers in elementary and secondary schools. An…

The experience of the Canadian provinces with large-scale testing programs is reviewed to suggest answers to questions currently discussed in the United States regarding the proposed national system of achievement testing. In the Canadian provinces, tests are linked to provincial curricula. Standards and assessments are not set by experts with no…

A review of educational measurement journals indicates that the decade of the 1970s and up until about 1984 was the time when substantial numbers of studies dealt with criterion-referenced measurement, and the era in which criterion-referenced measurement advances were made. Although there appears to be less interest in publications today, a…

The 1992 achievement tests for the Alberta (Canada) public schools show what students in grades 3, 6, and 9 can do in social studies, language arts, and mathematics, respectively. Results are reported in terms of curriculum standards, achievement standards, and assessment standards. In June 1992, there were 41,696 students in grade 3, 37,837 in…

A brief sketch is presented of the assessment strategies of the College Board in two unique programs, EQUITY 2000 and Pacesetter, both works in progress that attempt to meet the challenges of the new era of equity and excellence in education. EQUITY 2000, launched in 1990, is a multi-faceted approach to closing the gap between college-going rates…

In discussing educational equity and Project Performance and Assessment Collaboratives for Education (PACE), the authors present an argument, a detailed illustration, and a set of imperatives for education in the United States. The argument examines the last century and a half of American educational practice to illustrate why we cannot simply…

This report describes how the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) Framework for Educational Accountability, which specifies outcomes and indicators for six developmental levels (ages three and six, grades four, eight, and twelve, and post-school), can be used to implement parts of the National Association of State Directors of Special…

With the move to self-governance and the dismantling of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), there is a need to know if Aboriginal education systems are providing superior, adequate, marginal, or unsatisfactory standards of education for their students. A study of 165 First Nations students attending a K-10 First Nations school sought to…

ACT and 127 institutions (primarily community colleges) worked together on a Partners in Progress Research project comparing ASSET reading, writing, and math scores (incoming student placement tests) with CAAP reading, writing, and math scores (exiting student outcomes test). This was in order to refine the content of the related exams, and…

This publication on the importance of further education is one in a series of booklets written specially for managers in further and higher education in the United Kingdom. The series is intended to provide up-to-date information on current issues in vocational education and training, summaries of key research studies, and perspectives on these…

To help determine how the introduction of alternate assessment can be structured to maximize its acceptance and long-term adoption by teachers, a case study was conducted of the introduction of alternate assessment in a suburban middle school in the spring of 1991. Three seventh-grade life science teachers, three eighth-grade physical science…

This formative report presents data collected through the second year of full operation (1990-1991) of Nolin Middle School for Environmental Science, in the Kansas City School District, Missouri. The report focuses on student demographics; program implementation information; achievement data; and perceptions of staff, parents, and students of the…