Standard setting on licensure and certification tests is difficult both to execute and to defend. There may, however, be certain minimum standards for standard setting on which most will be able to agree. One such standard is logical consistency. M. T. Kane (1984, 1986) has suggested an approach to evaluating the logical consistency of one widely…

Issues and problems in assessment research are explored, with suggestions to help establish an acceptable correlation between student assessment scores and final grades. Topics include assessing instructor grading variation, instructor grade point average (GPA), success rates, and lack of linearity in grade scales. Solutions to these problems are…

This brief paper reflects one graduate instructor's efforts to bring about the use of qualitative action research in his classes through utilizing contract grading. Students select among various options such as demonstration teaching, peer coaching, shadowing, in school staff or PTA presentations, or other kinds of action research involving…

Three teachers of first-year composition used cross-grading as a way of extending the student's grasp of interpretive communities as arbiters of value as well as creators of meaning. Students in six sections (two experimental groups) approached the English 101 Common Final in the same manner, discussing a published article and sharing their…

A study examined the effectiveness of an experimental system of peer assessment. Two speech communication classes consisting of 22 student groups (110 participants) served as subjects. At the beginning of the semester, students in both classes were assigned to groups. Each group was responsible for presenting a project. The groups met both inside…

A study examined teachers' training, practices, and values for using the report card to communicate their knowledge of students' literacy achievement. Subjects, 48 elementary, middle, secondary, and college preparatory teachers from 10 school districts in 5 states, completed a questionnaire designed to elicit teachers' perspectives on the report…

Report-card marking items by which elementary school students' noncognitive classroom behaviors are graded were studied to establish a preliminary classification of behavioral assessment domains. Two studies were conducted. The first study employed a cluster-analytic approach to a pool of 136 noncognitive behavior-marking items that had been…

The paper addresses problems and strategies for evaluating mainstreamed students in vocational education classes. In addition to grading concerns, the area of graduation requirements is also considered. Alternatives to traditional methods of evaluation, including competencey based evaluation and adaptation of assessment techniques are described as…

Examines current grading procedures and expresses the desire that children succeed in school, not because of the threat of grades, but because they are interested and motivated.

Author looks into the workings of the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board. (Editor/RK)

Analyzes some of the possible causes for the low popularity of high school physics, including tough grading practices, the fact that physics is required more often than it is elected, the practice of teaching physics by lectures, and the lack of a methodology in teaching abstract concepts. (MLH)

The JMB, Syllabus B, O level oral examination in French is commented on by an ex-examiner. Mention is made of ways in which candidates lose marks and of the need for teachers to know more about the marking system. (RM)

The contract system where the student makes his own decision about the grade he desires and then works toward the achievement of that goal is examined. Five pass/fail assignments for a U.S. history course are suggested as possible student tasks. (DE)

A guide to help instructors establish grading policies and practices or review and revise current grading procedures is presented. Advantages/disadvantages of four common comparisons used to determine grades are considered: comparisons with other students, comparisons with established standards, and comparisons based on learning relative to…