The statement by the British organization, the National Association for Remedial Education, raises concerns about the proposed new National Curriculum including the lack of consultation with educators and the testing of children against established national standards. (DB)

A set of methods is proposed for the analysis of opportunity to learn (OTL) in relation to achievement in large-scale educational assessments. Methods are illustrated with data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the National Education Longitudinal Study. Implications for large-scale educational assessment are discussed. (SLD)

This commentary discusses three essential themes in performance assessment and its scoring. First, scores should mean something. Second, performance scores should permit fair and meaningful comparisons. Third, validity-reducing errors should be minimal. Increased attention to performance assessment may overcome these problems. (SLD)

A research psychologist and education consultant offers school board members some principles for appraising statistics: (1) distinguish between rates and numbers; (2) distinguish between ranks and scores; (3) try to "look through" the pictorial representation of data; (4) double check the data for accuracy; and (5) consider the source of the data.…

This paper summarizes an October 1993 report of the U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement on the status of educating gifted and talented students. The report cites evidence of the mediocre education received by gifted students, describes programs that do not meet students' needs, and outlines recommendations for offering high-level…

This article introduces a series of papers describing different approaches to quality assurance and evaluation in higher education, focusing on the Finnish approach to governance and evaluation which has moved from detailed control to outcome targeting accompanied by a strong reliance on the capacity of institutions to evaluate themselves. (JDD)

Methods of adjusting group differences in assessment and test scores are described, classified, and evaluated. Investigation of the relationship between intended use of test scores and the appropriate meaning of scores is essential for fair treatment in assessment. (SLD)

Develops and evaluates the linkage of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to the mathematics scale of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The accuracy of the proficiency distribution estimated from the projection was close to the accuracy of the distribution estimated from the large scale assessment. (SLD)

Discusses America's fascination with measuring education. Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a single composite indicator, akin to the Dow Jones Index, to measure educational productivity. Describes progress in the California State Education Department in developing a composite index to measure student performance. (SR)

Competency-based education has certain limitations: it neglects the role of human judgment and personal motivation and focuses on isolated skills; assessment of some competencies is not practical; present standards do not help people cope with change; and standards such as Britain's National Vocational Qualifications were designed to meet the…

Three options for competency-based assessment in Australia's national standards system are grades, merit, and end-of-course assessment. Grades are well established; merit has flexibility and provides progressive feedback. All three have advantages and disadvantages. (SK)

Examines the theoretical underpinnings of situation cognition and derives implications for the design of situated learning environments. Highlights include a discussion of the four basic issues of the conceptual framework of situation cognition; these include the role of content, context, facilitation, and assessment. A table summarizes the…

Proposes a world systems approach to comparative education to overcome the limitations of mainstream case/country-study approaches and the omission of non-Western perspectives. The approach analyzes the existence worldwide of nation-state controlled education systems, which are structurally similar, yet socially differentiated and ideologically…

Reviews literature regarding the intellectual and linguistic characteristics of Hispanic bilinguals, explores the understanding and proper use of psychometric tests with Hispanic children, and presents specific recommendations for the psychoeducational assessment of Puerto Rican bilingual children that involve the development and use of bilingual…