This brief report states that legal problems with competency testing have been more procedural than substantive-more concerned with implementation than legitimacy. The right to notice is the most straight-forward and firmly established principle to emerge from competency testing litigation. Students must have fair warning and opportunity to…

Assessment testing in California's community colleges (CCC) helps to identify entering students' goals and skills level and to ensure that the students are properly advised of appropriate courses and programs. The California Education Code requires that all assessment instruments be approved by the Office of the Chancellor of the California…

As of the fall of 1984, 40 states had by state mandate adopted some form of student minimum competency testing; 19 are or will be using test performance for the award of high school diplomas. In the other 10 states, local initiatives had implemented such testing programs on the school district level. Five states were using competency tests to…

A full report is presented of testimony on teacher preparation given by witnesses before the subcommittee on postsecondary education. Included are the remarks and prepared statements of the following witnesses: (1) Marie D. Eldridge, Administrator of the National Center for Education Statistics, who discussed survey data on making teacher…

Use of nationally standardized tests to determine teacher competency continues to be a subject for review in state and federal courts. School district policies have promoted minimum score requirements as a basis for employment decisions concerning certification, hiring, renewal, promotion, and merit pay. Legal challenges to these policies focus…

The Georgia Teacher Certification Tests were developed and validated to be job-related and to reflect the minimum content knowledge that is necessary to teach in each certification area in Georgia classrooms. Three assessment instruments are used in evaluating the performance of preservice students and beginning teachers. The Teacher Performance…

The implementation of uniform standards for assessing prospective teachers' competencies in basic skills prior to admission is growing rapidly. There is also a trend toward increasing the grade point average required for admission. Policies on admission to teacher education programs reflect concern about the decline in both the number and quality…

This report summarizes the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS) results for 1984. TABS assesses student achievement in mathematics, reading, and writing, including composition. The criterion-referenced tests are based on stated learning objectives and are administered annually to Texas students in grades 3, 5, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Grade 3 results…

This document presents papers from a conference called in 1983 to discuss the possible effects of the Onmibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 on the enforcement of civil rights laws affecting the education of black children, and to chart specific recommendations to guide the work of the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI).…

In 1988, the Basic Skills Task Force was established to assess the effectiveness of four academic policies in addressing the needs of California community college students with skills deficiencies. The policies define the scope and content of Adult Basic Education and of Precollegiate Basic Skills Instruction in nondegree-applicable credit…

In 1979, Act 187, known now as the Educator Improvement Act, was mandated by the legislature of the State of South Carolina. One tenet of Act 187 was the establishment of an Educator Improvement Task Force to develop an instrument which could effectively measure minimal teaching competencies. To help in the content and design of the instrument,…

Survey responses from 517 member institutions of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education are reported. The first section depicts the nature of the institutions (public land grant, public non-land grant, independent liberal arts, church-related liberal arts, private university, and predominantly black), and the patterns of…

This paper describes the meeting of the Reading and Writing Advisory Committee of the New Jersey Basic Skills Council with selected high school English teachers and administrators. This panel established cut scores for statewide interpretation of the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test (NJCBSPT). The NJCBSPT is administered to all…

Participants in this conference of educators, convened to consider methods of evaluating teacher education students, focused upon the relationship between candidate quality and teacher effectiveness. Questions under consideration included: (1) pre-admission field experiences students should demonstrate; (2) optimum scores on aptitude and…

During the 1982-83 school year the Spencerport (New York) Central School District began a comprehensive project to study the effective schools research and its implications at all levels of a suburban school system. A leadership planning team (consisting of teachers, principals, and district personnel) participated in a series of workshops and…