A study examined (1) relationships between background knowledge and reading passage comprehension, (2) the reliability of a passage-specific background knowledge measure used as the knowledge criterion, (3) the effect of a prereading language and concept organizer activity on available background knowledge, and (4) the effect of that prereading…

This report from the Ben Hill Elementary School in Atlanta (Georgia) provides information on student achievement for the 1986-87 school year. The narrative presents 11 findings concerning enrollment, attendance, reading achievement and math achievement. Conclusions and recommendations generated from these findings are the following: (1) on most…

Research evidence relating to the utility of the RMC evaluation models of compensatory education employing non-normed tests is examined. The history and evolution of five early models into the current norm-referenced model utilizing a non-normed test (Model A2), non-normed versions of a comparison model (Model B2), and the regression model (Model…

Because testing, in many different forms, currently plays such an important role in education, Elementary Secondary Education Act, Title I, the Division of Federal Assistance in the Vermont State Department of Education, prepared this brochure to present a general introduction to terms and phrases commonly used in testing and to highlight some of…

The SCOPE Mathematics Achievement Test booklet for grade 4 presents 11 mathematical concepts with instructions for students to take the test with little or no teacher direction. Testing items are: writing number words to 100; giving the place value of any digit and using this to write in expanded form; finding a numeral between two given numerals…

This speech presents instructional evaluation techniques currently used in Belleville, Illinois. These are based on two criteria: (1) community opinion, and (2) performance level of students. To discover community opinions, needs, priorities, and levels of support, questionnaires are distributed, presenting a series of curricular goals and…

Kansas law requires setting passing scores for the reading and mathematics competency test for 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 11th grade students, administered annually since April of 1980. New objective-referenced tests are prepared each year. Both judgmental (Angoff, Ebel, and Nedelsky) methods and empirical (contrasting groups and borderline) methods…

To facilitate normalization and deinstitutionalization of mentally retarded individuals, a three-phase assessment/prescription system has been developed to correspond with a concept of community integration as a series of successive transfers from (1) a restricted environment through (2) a specialized program-oriented rehabilitation and to (3) the…

Examines six areas of controversy surrounding testing--test validity, the role of affective objectives, criterion-referenced tests, test bias, IQ tests, and the effect of competition. (IRT)

This booklet is planned to help teachers, parents, students, and community members to understand concepts and research relating to testing in public schools. Three general uses--public access, accountability, and standards--relate to testing in its broadest conception. The major purposes of tests are discussed, as are some different types of…

The Wisconsin Pupil Assessment Program is a testing service which provides the State of Wisconsin with: (1) a measure of student performance in selected academic areas by developing objective-referenced tests in reading, mathematics, economic understanding, and writing; (2) a comparison of Wisconsin public school students to the rest of the nation…

The results of the 1979-80 reading and literature assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are contained in this report. In addition to the national results, the report describes the performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students in various cohorts defined by geographic region, sex, race/ethnicity, parental…

In the first part of the paper, some realistic expectations about schools and curriculum development, the conditions which preclude applying the standards of basic research to evaluate a program of instruction in large school systems, and some new research paradigms which have emerged from practice are defined. In the second part, an effort is…

When criterion-referenced tests are used to assign examinees to states reflecting their performance level on a test, the better known methods for determining test length, which consider relationships among domain scores and errors of measurement, have their limitations. The purpose of this paper is to present a computer system named TESTLEN, which…

This manual was developed to aid local school districts in complying with the requirement of California's Pupil Proficiency Law that districts provide extra help to students not making adequate progress towards basic skill mastery. Guidelines for the development of instructional packages keyed to the school districts proficiency tests, various…