Two studies were designed to investigate the role of morphemic structure on students' word reading. The first study asked whether familiar morphemes in words facilitate word reading for elementary students. Results showed that lower and upper elementary students read words with two morphemes (derived words with a base word and one suffix, such as…

Educators who specialize in teaching English-language learners agree that the 4-year-old No Child Left Behind Act has brought unprecedented attention to those students by requiring schools to isolate test-score data for them. They disagree, though, on whether changes in instruction spurred by the law have been positive or negative overall. Such…

Although significant federal funds are tied to student assessment, public education in this country is the responsibility of individual states. Subsequently, it seems as if there are as many approaches to measuring student ability and achievement as there are states. We now live in an increasingly mobile society in which today's families move from…

New writing components in standardized tests can have negative impact on classroom writing skills. Some of the steps that an educator should take in order to improve writing instruction when a standardized test fails to address the needs of the students and schools are described.

Current education policy is increasingly controlled by partisan politicians and the corporate interests that speak through them. Attacking American education and blaming economic troubles on failing schools and low standardized test scores coalesces the rhetoric of the right and draws attention away from fundamental social and economic problems.…

Investigates the predictive value of written longitudinal tests (progress tests), block-related written tests, and OSCEs in relation to peer-rated competence of medical students. (Author/SOE)

Mathematical literacy is an important skill that is gaining the attention of mathematics educators. Students are increasingly challenged on standardized assessments to read, create, use, and comprehend numerous mathematical representations as a way of demonstrating mathematical literacy. Test items assessing algebra concepts from the Texas…

With the proliferation of computers in test delivery today, adaptive testing has become quite popular, especially when examinees must be classified into two categories (passfail, master nonmaster). Several well-established organisations have provided standards and guidelines for the design and evaluation of educational and psychological testing.…

First an overview is given about the actual national and international situation concerning standardized testing. Then two major reasons are presented why accountability systems based on standardized testing have become so widespread: (a) the missing validity and reliability of teachers' assessment of students' achievement, and (b) the important…

Failure is inevitable and can be conducive to great learning and discovery. However, some failures exact too high a human cost to justify. All of this may sound like a contradiction: freedom to fail and avoidance of human cost at the same time. However, the crux of the matter is coming to understand how leadership supports failures in order to…

This study examined the comprehension subsection of Nelson-Denny Reading Test Form G (Brown, Fishco, & Hanna, 1993a) and some urban developmental students' performance on it. Three types of question-answer relations were identified using Pearson and Johnson's taxonomy. Students' performance was expressed in their scores on the three types of…

In this article, the author deplores how the No Child Left Behind Act has caused schools throughout the nation to dramatically reduce the number of curriculum hours for science, art, music, and history and social studies. The author contends that there is nothing wrong with these standards but he observes how teachers are being threatened by NCLB…

In this article, the author expresses his doubts about rubrics. He contends that rubrics have several drawbacks and these are the following: (1) Rubrics prevent teachers from improving their practices and rethinking their premises; (2) Students tend to think less deeply, avoid taking risks, and lose interest in the learning itself; and (3) Good…

In this paper, I reflect on equity research in order to describe a perspective on the mathematics classroom as a non-neutral place where issues of power and identity play out in teaching and learning processes. This view of the mathematics classroom takes seriously issues of equity in the form of power and what becomes constituted as legitimate…

This paper discusses the importance of evaluating state assessment data in order to improve learning. The Glens Falls City School District in upstate New York began in-depth analyses of state assessment data and Terra Nova scores over the last three years. Teachers and administrators work together in a new way to highlight strengths and weaknesses…