In 1990, Milwaukee (Wisconsin) became the site of the first publicly funded school-choice program providing low-income parents with vouchers that could be used to send their children to secular, private schools. An evaluation of Milwaukee's school-choice experiment was conducted by a team of researchers, headed by John Witte at the University of…

Many reports of successful school-based intervention programs suffer from an overestimation of the real effects, errors which many times arise from statistical technicalities. An illustration of such overestimations, as seen through a reanalysis of data on a successful program, is reported in this paper. The data were reevaluated using a variety…

This paper examines the use of student portfolios for assessment at the college level. Portfolios, which have recently been used extensively on the elementary and middle school levels, are collections of artifacts gathered to represent a student's work. After describing current dissatisfactions with the dominant standardized testing student…

Intended for teachers of all subjects, grades 3 through 12, this book explains how teachers can build a community of writers in which the students use portfolios to demonstrate progress and accomplishment across the curriculum. The book outlines practical strategies for ensuring that every student explores a variety of meaningful challenges. The…

This digest illustrates the variety of basic and theoretical issues in evaluation with which aspiring evaluators should be conversant in order to claim that they know the knowledge base of their profession. Coverage of the issues includes: the four steps in the logic of evaluation; whether qualitative evaluations are valid; whether it matters if…

Recent developments for student assessment and national curriculum in England are presented in this paper. The first part offers an overview of the national curriculum, as established by the government-appointed Task Group on Assessment and Testing (TGAT), which identified corresponding levels with statements of attainment. National curriculum…

Demonstrating that gender perceptions and expectations can influence assessment decisions that seem neutral on the surface, this book examines the responses of 31 freshman composition teachers to student writing. The book shows the negative effects of gender biases on assessment. For writing instructors to increase their sensitivity to gender…

This study investigated the possible causes of the contradiction between the results of two projects. Indiana's Prime Time project compared the achievement of students in large (averaging 26 students) and small (averaging 19 students) classrooms in grades 1 through 3. Results indicated that 3 years in smaller classes had little effect on student…

This paper examines the evaluation of student performance (SP) in schools in order to develop a set of strategies for creating more responsive systems for its evaluation, focusing on disadvantaged students. Problems involved in the evaluation of the performance of disadvantaged students are examined, including: evaluation purposes (direction,…

Ways to improve the validity of assessment of college students are discussed. Validity problems often have occurred because the purpose of assessment was not clear. Traditionally, college students have been tested for admission and placement. However, the results of these tests have been used for other purposes, such as comparing institutions.…

Issues in the ongoing evaluation of an innovative curriculum in an academic setting are discussed. The program provides instruction in computer literacy to a physically challenged clientele and to professionals from local service agencies who have disabilities. Data have been collected through survey questionnaires principally composed of Likert…

This report discusses the purposes and nature of various forms of assessment that can be used to enhance, support, and monitor the progress of science learning in elementary school classrooms. Chapters included are: (1) "Introduction" (describing assessment priorities); (2) "Issues in Assessment" (discussing validity, correspondence between…

This meta-analysis explored how measuring progress toward long- versus short-term goals relates to contrasting outcome measures of student achievement. Twenty-one controlled studies, that provided sufficient data for the calculation of effect size, were coded in terms of measurement method (toward long- versus short-term goals) and type of…

Some special problems associated with evaluating intelligent computer-assisted instruction (ICAI) programs are addressed. This paper intends to describe alternative approaches to the assessment and improvement of such applications and to provide examples of efforts undertaken and shortfalls. Issues discussed stem chiefly from the technical demands…

This perspective on how testing and evaluation data are used and could be used for school improvement is based partly on the experience of the Austin (Texas) Public Schools and partly on their goals. Four conditions are necessary for the effective use of evaluation information: (1) real need; (2) trust in the evaluators and in the information…