Standardized tests can be a valuable part of a value-added assessment package which attempts to determine what students gain from the college experience in general, and from communications courses in particular. The critical issues concerning assessment center around who will evaluate what skills and values with which instruments. Within the…

The Student Achievement Outcome goal setting component of the Student Achievement Project (SAP) is described in this paper. It has focused on implementation and documentation procedures that may serve as alternatives to the exclusive use of standardized achievement test scores as indexes of student achievement and indicators of teacher…

Teacher perceptions of standardized achievement test items, drawn mainly from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), as possibly favoring black or white pupils was investigated. Teacher' ratings were compared across race of raters, black and white; item types; favoring blacks and favoring whites; and six subtests. Ratings were also compared with…

It is argued that publishers of achievement tests, especially those who publish tests intended for use in many parts of the United States, are for the most part not in a position to obtain any decent evidence about the consequences of the uses that are made of their tests. What responsibilities and actions publishers can reasonably be expected to…

The purpose of the study was to compare reliability estimates for a test composed of stimulus-dependent testlets as derived from item scores, testlet scores, and under the univariate generalizability theory and multivariate generalizability theory designs, as well as to determine the influence of the number of testlets and the number of items per…

Educational assessment is a process of collecting evidence and interpreting it to provide instructors with information regarding students' learning. However, the current design and scoring of most standardized educational tests are insufficient to serve this purpose. The limitation exists primarily due to the lack of cognitive information…

Many educators, students, parents and other taxpayers rely on the perception that literacy is some narrowly defined ideal, and that students must all conform to that ideal to become successful, (in other words) productive citizens. Sharon Crowley posits two ways of thinking about texts. In one, texts are discursive bits produced to engender more…

In this discussion on differences between white and black students in academic achievement, it is pointed out that apparent differences in scholastic ability may actually be differences in ways of thinking and relating to schooling which arise more from cultural background than from innate cognitive ability. It is suggested that disparities that…

Intended for school psychologists, the paper discusses current approaches to instrumentation in the standardized psychological schools. A framework is presented for the classification of assessment instruments, and examples of some currently employed instruments are provided along with a comparative analysis. Problems identified with existing…

Standardized tests are devised to sort students out, comparing them on a scale from high to low, not to discover what students know. Thus, results of standardized tests are misleading in representing the achievements of educational programs and in comparing one school or school system with another. Criterion tests, however, measure directly and…

The marked increases in standardized achievement testing have raised concerns of the educational community regarding the value of standardized testing programs and their potentially harmful effect on students. This study incorporated student perceptions and their views of standardized testing and combined this information with their performance on…

The president of the University of California proposes that colleges and universities abandon their use of the SAT I in assessing applicants, and several other higher education officials respond. (EV)

This paper considers corruption in higher education in Ukraine as reflected in the national media, including such aspects as corruption in admissions to higher education institutions and corruption in administering the newly introduced standardized test. The major focus is on the opinions of the leading figures of the education reform on…

This presentation is a review of the literature on the assessment of standardized test scores in black colleges. Divergent points of view exist relative to the misuse and use of standardized test scores for the sole purpose of admission of black students. Some misuses of the American College Test (ACT) and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) are noted,…

The paper examines use of a children's revision of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB-CR) for three aspects of neuropsychologic assessment in children: the absence or presence of learning disability (LD), patterns in dysfunction, and rehabilitation potential and strategies. A review of research covers the use of the battery in the…