Since 1969 the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has conducted annual assessments to determine, in the language of the current legislation, "the performance of children and young adults in the basic skills of reading, mathematics and communications" and to "report data periodically on changes in the knowledge and…

The evolution and administration of testing to measure student progress through a required undergraduate bibliographic instruction course (Library 160) at Iowa State University are described. Bibliographic instruction began at the university in 1890. Through 1958 all colleges within the university received a noncredit required course in library…

Prior to 1979, DeKalb Community College (DCC) developed placement levels from Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores as criteria for admissions to degree-granting programs. When this procedure proved inadequate for degree admissions and student placement, DCC began generating placement levels on the basis of the Reading, English, and Mathematics…

Although most instructors are solely responsible for the evaluation and grading of students, they rarely receive formalized training in test construction or other forms of evaluation. Evaluating highly motivated students in very small classes is a rather uncomplicated procedure; however, evaluating large classes in which students have a range of…

This Digest overviews legal challenges in five areas of test use for decision-making in schools: ability tracking, placement in special education classes, test scores as college admissions criteria, test disclosure, and teacher competency testing. Cases illustrating these challenges are described and include: Hobson v. Hansen (1967), Moses v.…

This ERIC Digest discusses implications derived from the final report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, "A Nation at Risk." The first implication is a motivational one for measurement specialists: it is an ego-booster. The report is replete with results yielded from various testing programs, the fruit of the…

The Lansing Community College (LCC) Math Lab offers two arithmetic and two developmental algebra courses and provides a placement and proficiency testing program for the mathematics department and for other selected departments in the college. Students who participate in Math Lab courses: (1) take a placement test and/or have a placement interview…

This paper reports the results of a survey conducted in the spring of l981 that was designed to collect and summarize guidelines on appropriate test use from the various organizations, agencies, and associations involved in standardized educational testing. The primary objective of the study was to learn how these various groups define the issues…

The purpose of this paper is to give an account of the history of the Canadian Service for Admission to College and University (SACU) and to discuss its services, its present crisis, and its possible reorientation, bearing in mind the fact that West Germany is about to establish a similar admissions service. (Author/RK)

Provides a cursory comparison of four popular social studies achievement tests, discusses the relationship between the subject matter and the test, and provides examples of new methods of testing that give the teacher and the class tools for summarizing and interpreting what they are learning as they work together. (Author/IRT)

This article discusses the school counselor's task in being responsive to student rights in educational and psychological assessment. (Author)

The Feldt-Gilmer congeneric reliability coefficients make it possible to estimate the reliability of a test composed of parts of unequal, unknown length. The approximate standard errors of the Feldt-Gilmer coefficients are derived via a method using the multivariate Taylor's expansion. Monte Carlo simulation is employed to corroborate the…

The stimulus for this colloquium was the convergence of several significant developments bearing on the construct validation of standardized tests and other assessment methods. Of these developments, some were fundamental to psychology as a science; others reflected socio-political pressures on measurement in education and employment. The ten…

An inservice teacher education program--designed to make those administering tests more aware of the difficulties students face in a testing due to discriminatory factors inherent in evaluation instruments--is described, and information is provided on program purposes, content, activities, resources, ordering information, and history of…