The instructions in this manual explain the responsibilities of school administrators for the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Mathematics Paper-Based Field Tests. School administrators must be thoroughly familiar with the contents of the manual, and the policies and procedures must be followed as written…

The instructions in this manual explain the responsibilities of school administrators for the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Mathematics Field Tests, and the Elementary-level (Grade 5) and Intermediate-level (Grade 8) Science Field Tests. School administrators must be thoroughly familiar with the…

Some schools use results from the MAP® Growth™ interim assessments from Northwest Evaluation Association® (NWEA®) in a number of high-stakes ways. These include as a component of their teacher evaluation systems, to determine whether a student advances to the next grade, or as an indicator for student readiness for certain programs or…

Although self-publishing designed to enhance student understanding is important to promote learning objectives and can contribute to the field of knowledge, self-publishing without peer review is generally not acceptable for promotion and tenure purposes. However, there is a growing trend that recognizes the use of self-published items to help…

This technical assistance paper provides guidance to individuals with test administration responsibilities in adult education programs. These policies apply to the approved assessments that programs may use to report educational gains in compliance with the National Reporting System (NRS) requirements. The NRS is the accountability system for the…

This book identifies the six fearless decisions that school leaders need to make to be successful. The author analyzes the top fears that impede effective leadership and lower student achievement, then provides a step by step antidote that will change fear into intention, increase confidence, and produce positive results in your school. In this…

Skilled teachers who assess students using high quality, relevant and timely assessments can use the results to modify, refine and individualize instruction. Student assessments should be a reflection of what is taught in the classroom. As more accountability provisions have been implemented at the national, state and district levels, the focus on…

How do the best administrators find out how to improve their schools? They actively engage the people who work and study there. In "From Questions to Actions: Using Questionnaire Data for Continuous School Improvement," data experts Victoria L. Bernhardt and Bradley J. Geise explain how to collect and analyze data with an eye toward positive…

The authors describe the results of five types of WISC-R (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised) profiles in developing remedial reading for learning disabled children. (CL)

Given the potential value of reliability generalization (RG) studies in the development of cumulative psychometric knowledge, the purpose of this paper is to provide a tutorial on how to conduct such studies and to serve as a guide for researchers wishing to use this methodology. After some brief comments on classical test theory, the paper…

IDEA is the nation's special education law. Under IDEA if a child is found to be a "child with a disability," he or she is eligible for special education and related services. If your child has a disability, under IDEA, a team of people will gather to talk about what special instruction and services your child needs. This team includes…

The General Achievement Profile described in this article is used for making visual comparisons of a child's test performance scores through shadings on graph bars. The profile is intended as a counselor aid for use during an individual test interpretation session. (Author)

The author describes the tests he uses in evaluating students for learning disabilities, his reasons for using them, and results and interpretations based on those tests. (CL)

Teachers are advised that analysis of covariance structures can be used to obtain estimates of variance components for use in generalizability analyses. Generalizability theory provides a flexible and practical framework for examining the psychometric properties of testing situations. This article illustrates the approach for fully crossed…

A procedure and a computing diagram for assigning score boundaries to grading categories on classroom tests are described. The procedure takes both the median ability level of the class and the test performance of the class relative to that of other classes into account. (Author)