The Research and Evaluation Branch of the Los Angeles Unified School District presents a bulletin to help prepare students to do their best on achievement tests. The bulletin is divided into five sections. After an introduction, section 2, "Characteristics of Today's Standardized Achievement Tests" discusses test content, test format,…

Many researchers have suggested that the cause of differential item functioning (DIF) can in part be due to the misspecification of the supporting trait distribution (STD). This paper demonstrates how a unidimensional item response theory (IRT) calibration of response data, generated from a two-dimensional IRT model, results in DIF when the…

Standardized tests represent one way of obtaining assessment information. Yet in recent years educators and the public have voiced concerns about an overriding emphasis on tests and test scores. Pressure to "teach to the test" means that not enough time is spent on higher order thinking and literacy skills because minimal competencies…

This literature review examined the relationship between the type of mathematics courses taken and scholastic mathematics achievement. The paper concludes that there is a high correlation between types of mathematics courses taken and scholastic math achievement. Specifically, higher level mathematics courses enhance and foster analytical thinking…

This paper considers the problem of validating placement procedures or, more precisely, of determining their educational appropriateness. At issue is determining whether a test score serves the particular educational function it was designed to serve (for example, course placement), and whether it does so in an economical way. These determinations…

The development and use of item shells in the construction of a series of standardized tests of reading comprehension at the elementary school level are described. An item shell is an item that is devoid of specific content, but contains key words and a distinctive syntactic structure. The specific content of the item shell varies depending on the…

A study was conducted that focused on 5-year graduation as a criterion for success at a major Eastern university, and a set of predictors for use by those concerned with admissions policy was developed. The best predictors of 5-year graduation were persistence to the second year and first-year cumulative grade-point average. Among pre-college…

This module developed by the Research Applications for Teaching (RAFT) project assists the preservice teacher in constructing test items to better measure the outcomes of instructional objectives. Student teachers are also assisted in the interpretation of results of a student's performance on a standardized test. Students also…

Recent theoretical developments in cognitive psychology imply both a need and a possibility for methodological development. In particular, the theory of problem solving proposed by Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon (1972) provides the rationale for a new empirical method for the processing of think-aloud protocols--trace analysis. A detailed…

Designed to improve standardized reading scores, a structured reading program was implemented for third grade students at Community Elementary School 73 in the Bronx, New York City. From 1982 to 1987, this school ranked near the bottom of all New York City elementary schools in reading achievement, a ranking based primarily on results of reading…

Current methods and instruments for assessing college student academic outcomes are identified and described, and possible outcome measures of NCRIPTAL's (National Center for Research to Improve Postsecondary Teaching and Learning) are suggested. Section I defines college outcomes from several perspectives, including pressures for outcome…

Attitudes related to standardized achievement and ability tests were examined among a group of elementary and middle school teachers and administrators whose students are tested annually to fulfill a statewide accountability law. Teachers' survey responses indicated general support for testing and for the use of test results for diagnosing school-…

The way test scores are used by both the public and private sectors, and the way in which this use is promoted and regulated indicates how some public policies are formed and who characteristically bears the cost of policies as well as who benefits. What has been happening in the relationship between test use and policy formation is not unique,…

Teachers' perspectives on the student assessment process and on the role of testing in that process are presented. Primarily ethnographic in approach, this study includes investigations of teachers' ideas and thought processes as well as observation of actual classroom practice. Six elementary teachers participated in a three-stage process of…

The performance of pupils, individual schools, and the Wichita Public School System is depicted in a quantitative report of the results of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) administered as part of the system's basic testing program. The ITBS battery measured vocabulary, reading, language, work-study and mathematics skills and results are given…