This paper presents empirical data concerning the use of a cloze test as a measure of second language proficiency. Grade four students in their fifth year of a French immersion program were tested using both English and French cloze tests. Correlations between the cloze test and other language achievement measures were calculated for both…

Discusses issues relating to the reliability, validity, utility, and information value of unobtrusive testing of library reference services; provides suggestions for practical applications of these criteria; applies study findings to library decision making and planning; and identifies topics for further methodological refinement. (Author/CLB)

A critical first step in developing training systems is gathering quality information about a trainee's competency in a skill or knowledge domain. Such information includes an estimate of what the trainee knows prior to training, how much has been learned from training, how well the trainee may perform in future task situations, and whether to…

This book re-examines the dichotomy between the everyday and the disciplinary in mathematics and science education, and explores alternatives to this opposition from points of view grounded in the close examination of complex classroom events. It makes the case that students' everyday experience and knowledge in their entire manifold forms matter…

This report launches the second volume of the Brown Center Report on American Education. The five issues of volume one were published from 2000 to 2004. Volume one included regular reports on data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and state assessments, analysis of student achievement in charter schools, a study of trends…

Technical questions regarding the reliability and validity of large-scale portfolio assessment were studied which focused on: (1) whether raters can score collections of writing reliably with rubrics designed for single samples; (2) whether ratings derived from different frameworks differ in their capacities to support technically sound…

Standards-based curricula are being created throughout the world, and exit exams are being implemented in order to make sure that students meet those standards. There is a real potential that these standards will help improve the achievement of students, but there is also a possibility that these exams will be implemented in a way that will be…

Chapter 1 of this report and user's manual describes design and implementation of the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). Chapter 2 reviews stages of sampling for national and state survey components; presents weighted and unweighted response rates for the household component; and describes non-incentive and prison sample designs. Chapter…

This paper examines the results of a questionnaire on reading ability in English by Japanese college students, which was formerly analyzed using raw scores, from the viewpoint of Rasch measured scores. In the Rasch analysis, the basic requirements for measuring are the following: (1) reduction of experience to one dimensional abstraction; (2)…

Student testing in Japan is not effectively used. In many cases test results are used only for ranking and sorting students into whatever the designated purposes of the tests are. They are not focused on monitoring individual student progress. This is an especially inadequate approach for teaching oral communications courses. This paper proposes a…

This paper discusses the results of a study that investigated the validity and reliability of the Ecology Rating Scale (ERS). The ERS is a brief, multi-dimensional level-of-functioning instrument that can be rated by parents or clinicians. The ERS is comprised of seven domains of youth functioning: family, school, emotional, legal/justice,…

Scales were developed to assess both the custodial and humanistic aspects of student control ideology. Research based on the responses of about 500 Hong Kong teacher education students showed responses to these scales were of adequate internal consistency, and confirmatory factor analysis supported two independent scales rather than a continuum…

This technical manual provides an overview of the "Transition Behavior Scale-Second Edition Self-Report Version" (TBS-2 S-RV), an assessment that provides the means by which student behavior, which is predictive of employment and societal transition behavior, can be documented. Those students (ages 12-18) most likely to have problems in employment…

This monograph documents the basis for selection of test items and health-related, criterion-referenced standards associated with the Brockport Physical Fitness Test (BPFT), a criterion-referenced fitness test for children and adolescents with disabilities. The manual is divided into separate chapters for the relevant components or sub-components…

This guide examines the legal issues to consider in setting policy on the appropriate uses, and consequences, of student testing, and explores the controversies that have arisen in places where new polices were implemented. Chapter 1, "An Overview of Student Testing and Assessment," provides a brief overview of some of the state and…