Federal law requires that, at a minimum, states assess high school students at least once in English language arts/literacy (ELA), mathematics, and science; these results are used for school accountability. With states' recent transitions to new assessments and accountability systems, Achieve wanted to know more about how these varied assessments,…

The Global Graduate initiative was developed to help Houston Independent School District (HISD) students be successful in college and in the global workforce upon graduation. The program emphasizes six characteristics in its Global Graduate Profile: (1) A Leader; (2) Adaptable and Productive; (3) A College-Ready Learner; (4) A Critical Thinker;…

Hispanic high school graduates have lower college completion rates than academically similar white students. As Hispanic students have been theorized to be more constrained in the college search and selection process, one potential policy lever is to increase the set of colleges to which these students apply and attend. In this paper, we…

The main objective of the present pilot study was to construct and standardize a Scientific Aptitude Test (SAT) for the secondary school science students (Grade 9 and 10). The test items (30 questions) were prepared by the researchers based on the five important aspects in scientific thinking such as Analogy, Scientific reasoning, Numerical…

This study examines the psychometric features of a General Aptitude Test-Verbal Part, which is used with assessments of high school graduates in Saudi Arabia. The data supported a bifactor model, with one general factor and three content domains (Analogy, Sentence Completion, and Reading Comprehension) as latent aspects of verbal aptitude.

The "Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented Students" (Texas State Plan) represents the accountability plan for measuring the performance of districts in providing state-mandated services to students identified as gifted/talented (G/T). The State Board of Education approved revisions in July 2019. The Texas State Plan…

Because of concerns about test security, different test forms are typically used across different testing occasions. As a result, equating is necessary in order to get scores from the different test forms that can be used interchangeably. In order to assure the quality of equating, multiple equating methods are often examined. Various equity…

This report presents a question-driven exploration of growth and achievement data using SAS EVAAS reports. The purpose of this exploration was to bring additional data, information, and ways of thinking about student growth to ongoing district conversations about the measurement of campus-level student growth.

The prevalence of homeschooling in the United States is increasing. Yet little is known about how commonly used predictors of postsecondary academic performance (SAT, high school grade point average [HSGPA]) perform for homeschooled students. Postsecondary performance at 140 colleges and universities was analyzed comparing a sample of traditional…

This article uses empirical data to consider the consequences of particular characteristics of instruction and testing in high school for the modeling and estimation of value-added measures of school or teacher effectiveness. Unlike Mathematics and Reading for most elementary and middle school grades, there is a lack of annual testing of students…

On the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments, the attainment of performance level 4 is intended to indicate college readiness or being "on track" to college and career readiness. Students who achieve Level 4 should have a 0.75 probability of attaining at least a C in entry-level,…

The present preliminary research work was intended to measure the scientific attitude, scientific aptitude and scientific knowledge of secondary school students in the selected schools of two districts in Tamilnadu, India. The normative survey method was applied and a total of six null hypotheses(gender, studying class, medium of instruction,…

The Global Graduate initiative was developed to help Houston Independent School District (HISD) students be successful in college and in the global workforce upon graduation. The program emphasizes six characteristics in its Global Graduate Profile: A Leader, Adaptable and Productive, A College-Ready Learner, A Critical Thinker, A Skilled…

Universities and colleges at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia assess new applicants using academic indicators, such as high school grade point average (HSGPA) and the score of a national standardized test (the General Aptitude Test), to ensure that they are academically fit to join the institution. Such criteria have been suggested in previous research…

This article is concerned with developing a measure of general academic ability (GAA) for high school graduates who apply to colleges, as well as with the identification of optimal weights of the GAA indicators in a linear combination that yields a composite score with maximal reliability and maximal predictive validity, employing the framework of…