An administrative change in faculty hiring in a continuing education department was assessed in five ways, concluding that the adult education program improved, the number of scheduled courses increased, students evaluated teachers more highly, anecdotal information and a commissioned survey showed policy changes, and a campus poll reflected…

This guide for school administrators is written to promote careful and wise use of scores from standardized achievement tests. Authors of two sections particularly criticized in the review respond about what should be included in a primer on testing and interpreting test scores for compensatory education students. (SLD)

The history of educational assessment and research in Czechoslovakia and changes in attitudes toward educational testing are reviewed. The current status of educational assessment is evaluated and found wanting. A plan is proposed to resuscitate educational testing in Czechoslovakia in spite of the current economic and political problems. (SLD)

Debate about the levels-setting process for criterion-referenced tests of achievement is reviewed. An alternative framework is proposed for conceptualizing the problem and practice of setting performance standards on such tests. Standard setting is reconceptualized as the development, description, and implementation of reasonable rules for…

Discusses the role that technology will have in the national standards being developed by the New Standards Project. Examines the need for national standards, the use of technology in assessing whether students achieve those standards, and the timetable for the standards implementation. (MDH)

Describes the processes and techniques used to assist a suburban, lower-middle socioeconomic community's school system plan strategies to improve its students' proficiency test scores. Techniques included content analyses of the system's textbooks, the Graded Course of Study, and standardized tests for grades four, six, and eight in comparison…

Discusses assessment in education, examining how the current desire to assess outcomes of significance can be incorporated into an outcomes assessment system. Assessment characteristics and how assessment fits into an outcome-based educational system are explored. (SM)

The perspective of classroom measurement and assessment is broadened by providing a general description of classroom context and the measurements and assessments teachers use. A particular focus is how informal assessment is used to inform daily classroom decisions, and how these decisions spill over into formal measurement and assessment. (SLD)

Discusses some of the definitions of successful instruction stated or implied by researchers in science education and examines reasons for the diversity of definitions. Describes how a high school chemistry teacher decides whether his or her instruction is successful and how these assessments influence instructional practices. (PR)

Evidence is presented on the generalizability and convergent validity of performance assessments using data from six studies of student achievement that sampled a wide range of measurement facets and methods. Results at individual and school levels indicate that task-sampling variability is the major source of measurement error. (SLD)

Evaluates the results of the first three years of the national Secondary Education Certificate in Malta to determine its impact on educational equity. The new examinations attempt to offer access, relevance, and appropriate assessments to a wide range of students. There have been some implementation problems, but much has been achieved. (SLD)

Examines the viability of replacing the conventional placement testing in mathematics with a self-assessment strategy. Describes a study of 63 adult students who completed one of two self-assessment inventories and a mathematics placement test. Found that there is a positive relationship between information provided by students on the…

Analyzes three key areas community colleges should focus on when planning for the future: finding new sources of financial support, recruiting students, and assessing institutional effectiveness. (JDI)

Sketches the characteristics of the Japanese educational tradition and analyzes conflicts between modern western pedagogies and traditional education. Argues that Japanese socialization processes stress a specifically Japanese construction of the "self" and of behavior. Concludes that Japanese educators should be more aware of this…

The relationship of fiscal effort to eighth-grade achievement on international assessments was compared among U.S. states, for U.S. states versus foreign countries, and for the United States versus foreign countries. U.S. performance was as expected, given its relative fiscal effort, and several states were as efficient as top-performing foreign…