The Academic Support Services Program (ASSP) provides funds to Massachusetts school districts to develop or enhance academic support for students in second through tenth grade who performed poorly on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) or on other standardized assessment measures. In 1999, the Massachusetts Education Reform…

Author feels that declining sAT scores are due in large part to a lack of student reading and experiencing books. (GE)

Attempts to obtain information in regard to children's willingness to skip passages when answering reading comprehension test questions. (RB)

Article attempts to explain some basic information about standardized tests-test jargon, facts on test construction, administration, use and abuse. (Author/RK)

Analyzes the uses that can be made from test data and the influences such data can have on communication with communities, in the evaluation of school's effectiveness, and student's placement. (Author/RK)

Article shows how intelligence, readiness and achievement tests can be put to work in the classroom-not only as diagnostic tools but as aids in prescribing cures for learning problems. (Author)

Author advocates that, of the various approaches to evaluation, school systems should be working toward the development of a feedback model of evaluation and should be concentrating most of their efforts on that. (MB)

Factor analyzed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) across nine age groups in the standardization sample. When three- and four-factor analyses were performed, the familiar three-factor structure (Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organization, and Freedom From Distractibility) was clearly visible. (Author/JAC)

The present optometric education and licensing model, which includes the state boards, National Board, schools and colleges, Council on Optometric Education, and an external review committee, as well as future practitioners, is examined. Criticism of the challenge examination method is discussed in this context. (MSE)

A study investigated whether M.D. qualifying and certification examinations produced the same scores, pass levels, and educational outcomes. Data from 72 students showed the tests produce similar results. These findings imply the tests can also be used to predict student performance and for screening and diagnostic purposes. (Author/MSE)

Possible distortions in standardized test scores due to guessing, particularly in inner-city situations, are examined. A procedure is presented for estimating true knowledge levels from test scores. Results show scores are overstatements of subject mastery which means many programs are being planned and evaluated using inaccurate data. (Author/DWH)

The major cause of stress in private schools is ambiguity, according to this administrator, including ambiguity about teachers' status, roles, and commitment as well as about alumni attitudes, academic curricula, educational change, standardized tests, the purposes of a private education, and tuition tax credits. (RW)