A college faculty member who has graded Advanced Placement exam essays on U.S. government and politics, taken mostly by high school juniors and seniors, suggests that high school teachers and college faculty who assess the essays are not the best qualified persons to do so and that despite efforts to ensure consistency, the resulting scores are…

A faculty consultant to the Educational Testing Service for advanced placement (AP) test reading in U.S. government and politics responds to an article criticizing essay evaluation methods and criteria, finding in it a fundamental misunderstanding of the AP reading process and explaining why the essays are subject to less scrutiny for style,…

Drawing on several specific incidents of media misinterpretation or imbalanced reporting of information about higher education, particularly concerning faculty, the author examines how journalists can interpret and influence the balance of power on campuses. Issues discussed include presidential searches, campus employment patterns, and faculty…

Reviews the "Quick-Score Achievement Test" (Q-SAT), an individually administered measure of school achievement for use with students aged 7-18, which has two forms and yields scores for reading, writing, arithmetic, facts, and general achievement. (SKC)

Curriculum vitae for college faculty can be ambiguous and even misleading: they can obscure an individual's primary teaching and instructional achievements, tell less than they appear to, and convey an unintended message. Faculty should evaluate the clarity and force with which their vitae express their accomplishments and mirror their abilities.…

Presents an interview with Grant Wiggins, executive director of an educational consulting group. Discusses performance assessment and authenticity in testing. Addresses topics such as the student as worker, diploma as exhibition of mastery, authenticity of assessment, fairness, and skill as opposed to knowledge. Urges examining desired social…

Provides guidelines for teachers writing machine-scored examinations. Explains the use of item analysis (discrimination index) to single test items that should be improved or eliminated. Discusses validity and reliability of classroom achievement tests in contrast to norm-referenced examinations. (JHZ)

Discusses a history professor's attempt to awaken students' interest by assigning an oral history project rather than a traditional research paper. Reports that adding to the personal dimension to the project increased students enthusiasm and introduced them to problems of historical research and historiography. Includes problems of reliability…

Elaborated as a response to a traditional set of secondary school poetry examinations that are called "sterile and outmoded," this report resulted from a series of seminars held in England by literature educators. The report offers extensive guidelines for modernizing the exams, examples of student critical writing about particular poems, and…