Presuming that test scores can accurately reflect educational quality is naive and potentially dangerous. Sophisticated statistical procedures cannot fully separate the effects of confounding background variables (ethnicity, language proficiency, or poverty) from test scores. A broad-based assessment model relying on multiple indices and…

Three very powerful drivers of curriculum policy are converging to shape what is taught in American schools: the increasing power of testing and standardized accountability models to determine curriculum, the pressure for cultural literacy, and the educational restructuring movement, which could subordinate curriculum to school organization…

A general process for faculty to use in comparing the relative efficacy of college outcomes assessment instruments for gauging student progress toward goals is outlined. Analysis of two standardized general education exams, the American College Testing College Outcome Measures Project and the Educational Testing Service Academic Profile,…

The Clinical Skills Assessment Examination was constructed to test the clinical skills of foreign medical graduates. A pilot test of 635 foreign graduates, including 35 United States citizens, and 123 graduates of U.S. medical schools found 28 percent of foreign graduates deficient in clinical skills, consistent with previous research. (MSE)

Reports an interview with Clotilde Pontecorvo, founder of the International Center for the Study of Early Literacy, and Renzo Titone, chairman of the Department of Developmental, Social, and Educational Psychology at the University of Rome, Italy. Presents responses to questions about teacher training, literacy problems, and standardized testing…

Standarized, multiple-choice tests have become the major criterion for a wide range of school decisions affecting student placement, curriculum format, and teaching style. Improved assessment will not reform education. The more insightful and powerful the assessment tool, the more damage is caused by its misuse. Includes 70 references. (MLH)

Despite being unremittingly attacked over the past decade, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) continues to thrive. The growth in SAT use has been stimulated by its critics and by Educational Testing Service and College Board promotional campaigns. The SAT is still erroneously used to summarize the quality of incoming classes and colleges. Includes…

Reports an evaluation of the assessment test developed in communication at the Kansas City campus of the University of Missouri. Notes that the findings of this report suggest several important implications concerning the role of indirect assessments of student learning. (MM)

Examines the nature of large-scale, standardized assessment programs for oral communication in colleges and universities in 1986. Compares the results of this study with results from a similar study conducted in 1982. Concludes that assessment procedures show little change between the two studies. (MM)

A recent study analyzing 6,942 items from the Stanford achievement batteries determined that few general cognitive operations were included in the items analyzed. The general cognitive operations that were found had little to do with the items' difficulty. Students are not being taught certain necessary, but untested, cognitive skills. Includes 23…

Examines practices that encourage false negatives and false positives on licensing and certification tests designed to protect the public. Recommends increasing the amount of testing or raising the required passing score for repeat test takers. (FMW)

Describes an unconventional research method, simultaneous replication. In the Phi Delta Kappa Study of Students at Risk, researchers in 87 different sites used the same definitions, procedures, and instruments (standardized achievement tests), data collection, and data analysis techniques. The simultaneous replication process seems well-adapted to…

Analyzing growth rates and percentiles of achievement are two ways that school systems can evaluate school performance. Boards should also consider parent-teacher satisfaction, internal management systems, school board evaluation, and a number of other indicators. (MLF)

Discusses the difficulties teachers face with the current dual emphasis on teaching from a whole language curriculum while teaching cultural literacy and evaluating with standardized tests. Asserts that researchers need to focus on the complementarity between these approaches. (MM)

Regardless of how many times people are told by the Educational Testing Service not to use the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) as a gross measure of school productivity, the test continues to be used for that purpose. This article shows how misleading SAT scores and per-student-expenditure correlations are used to justify spending less money on…