Presents an interview with Jerry L. Johns. Discusses topics related to reading assessment, standardized tests and test-wiseness, the format and content of reading assessment measures, informal reading inventories, and portfolio assessment. (RS)

Three very powerful drivers of curriculum policy are converging to shape what is taught in American schools: the increasing power of testing and standardized accountability models to determine curriculum, the pressure for cultural literacy, and the educational restructuring movement, which could subordinate curriculum to school organization…

Two perspectives that frame the aspects of the debate on assessment issues are analyzed. The "count-everybody" perspective calls for national standards over which all students would be tested. The "everybody-counts" perspective favors assessments that are developed from multiple perspectives. (MDH)

Presents a history of the question of whether or not to include coursework, versus only traditional exams, as part of the assessment for the British General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and discusses arguments for and against the inclusion of coursework. (MKR)

Focuses on two implicit assumptions that Carl Rogers saw as dangerous undercurrents in the educational process: that ability to pass examinations is the best criterion for student selection and for judging professional promise, and that evaluation is education and education is evaluation. Opinions are offered by three professionals, each with…

Commends journalist William Raspberry for urging less testing and sorting, more cooperation, and less competition in schools. Congress, under pressure to force schools to produce results and get rewards, should heed this columnist's advice. Although school boards are resisting an AASA measure (H.R. 3320) to reform local and state education…

An experienced teacher spends too much time as a special-events coordinator facilitating movement among tests, instead of encouraging and enhancing student learning. For each test, she must rearrange the classroom and its routines, coordinate test materials, and assuage her third graders' fears. Teachers lack time to improve their practice. (MLH)

Argues that in no other course can students get such a varied knowledge base combined with practical experience as in scholastic journalism. Discusses how students learn writing, technological, and business skills; are well prepared for standardized testing; and receive character education. (SR)

This article invokes a literal image of test givers as measurement devices and explores the psychometric properties of these test administrator instruments. Concurrent and content validation and test-retest and parallel-forms validity are explored. (SLD)

Argues that standardized testing and portfolio assessment are not oppositional methods for determining student growth and teacher effectiveness but are complementary means of gathering and interpreting information that can lead to more holistic evaluations of student achievement in school. Suggests that much remains to be done in teacher education…

Considers three possible responses to standardized testing: Ignoring the test, embedding the test, and embracing the test. Concludes that the problem lies not in the tests themselves, but rather in how educators approach them and, more inherently, in what educators believe about them. (SG)

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 emphasizes school accountability, including consequences for perceived school failure, and NCLB consistently equates educational success with high student standardized test scores. I argue that NCLB may produce unacceptably high levels of collateral damage, and that teacher educators have special reasons…

The Advanced Placement (AP) exams have a significant impact on teaching English and the AP scores are recognized by most of the colleges and universities in the United States. The limitations of timed, standardized writing are discussed.

There has been a continuing drama over the unanswered question of whether students with disabilities deserve a high school diploma. Currently, a student is awarded a high school diploma if he or she meets local standards and if he or she passes the state's competency test of if his or her passage of the Indiana Standardized Test of Educational…

The issue of whether the federal government should outline and enforce an accountability system for states, school districts, and schools was essentially settled the day that George W. Bush took office as president. Bush had made "accountability" a cornerstone of his education platform, using his stated goal of ensuring equity for poor…