U.S. universities and colleges offering distance education courses have increased immensely since 1998, and by 2004 it was expected that distance learners will constitute about 14% of all those enrolled in degree programs. In its preliminary review of distance learning, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (1998) emphasized the need for…

Four different procedures were used for estimating the proportion of persons who would be classified consistently as either passing both of two parallel tests or failing both. These four methods were applied at each of four different mastery level scores for each of three different length tests. Data were based on 50 replications of each procedure…

A number of significant policy issues related to the use of competency tests in basic skills as a requirement for high school graduation are discussed. Issues contributing to the interest in this practice include test score decline, the widespread offering of electives in high school, the complaints of employers about the skill level of high…

Research partially supported by the UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation of Instructional Programs.

A comparison of four frequently used standard setting methods for deriving cut-off scores with respect to the expected performance of minimally competent students, is presented in this paper. Ten Kansas Competency Based Tests, in reading and mathematics, were administered across five grade levels in a state-wide minimal competency testing program.…

This special issue of "Catalyst", entitled Testing Programs in Schools: What's New?, was published jointly by the Nebraska Council of School Administrators and the Nebraska Association for Supervision and Curriculum. The articles emphasize desirability of designing testing programs to meet the information needs of educators and the…

This learning module on understanding performance objectives, criterion-referenced measures, and performance guides is one of nine developed for use in training administrators, teachers, and prospective teachers in the utilization of Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States (V-TECS) catalogs. Readings are provided on the following…

Designed for use in a self-paced, open-entry/open-exit vocational training program for a floriculture aide, this program guide is one of six for teachers of adult women offenders from a correctional institution. Module topic outlines and sample lesson plans are presented on eleven topics: occupational opportunities in the retail florist industry;…

This document presents a cognitive diagnostic test which was devised as part of the Multilevel Remediation in Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics project funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (Department of Health, Education, and Welfare). The test diagnoses the following areas of cognition judged by empirical analysis…

Four factors essential to determining how many items should be constructed or sampled for a set of objectives are examined: (1) importance and type of decisions to be made with the results; (2) importance and emphases assigned to the instructional and behavioral objectives; (3) number of objectives; (4) practical constraints, such as item writing…

A rationale is presented for the "control items" technique, the technique of using control (nonexperimental) test items to provide a baseline for estimating the effects indicated by scores on the experimental test items. For evaluating the effects of a curriculum, a test can be made of two types of items--ones that test explicit program objectives…

The Sheffield (Great Britain) Occupational Functional Reading Project was organized to study the functional reading required of 16-year-old school leavers who entered employment or training for a job, and to design instruments for assessing and diagnosing occupational functional reading abilities. The primary task of the project was to develop a…

The report presents selected elements of information exchanged and activities which took place during a Department of Health, Education and Welfare Region V 1979 conference on skills assessment, training, and evaluation of personnel serving the developmentally disabled. Aspects considered include legislative history, criterion referenced testing,…

Results from three small-scale investigations of specific aspects of bilingual schooling as well as results of a more traditional large-scale evaluation of bilingual education programs in downstate Illinois are presented. The three small studies were designed to assess natural language in the classroom, compare criterion-referenced versus…

The 1975 Community/Junior College Conference sought to define and describe evaluation, discuss measuring devices, and underscore the ethical reasons for fair evaluation. William P. Gorth began by discussing the purpose of evaluation--to provide data to a specified decision-maker for decision-making--and the implications which could be drawn from…