Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards High School (AIMS HS) is an assessment program that measures high school students' achievement of the Arizona Academic Standards adopted by the state Board of Education in three subject areas: reading, writing, and mathematics. All students in high school are required to participate in AIMS HS testing.…

This booklet presents a sentence dictation test designed to find which of the most commonly used words students need to learn how to spell. The 34 sentences that comprise the test in the booklet can be used for systematic spelling instruction in first or second grade and in upper-grade remedial classes. The test in the booklet can also be used to…

This document contains samples and explanations from Colorado's state reading and writing comprehension test for Grade 4, hereby released to the public (parents, teachers, and any other interested parties). It presents one reading comprehension item, the scoring guide for that item, and 6 different student responses, with the scores they received.…

This document contains samples and explanations from Colorado's state reading and writing comprehension test for Grade 7, hereby released to the public (parents, teachers, and any other interested parties). It presents one multiple-choice reading comprehension item based upon a poem and includes the correct answers. Next, it presents two short…

Samples of student writing from the Alberta (Canada) 9th grade achievement test in writing (administered in June 1990) are presented with evaluative commentaries. They are intended to offer teachers, administrators, and students illustration of the criteria and approach used to score the exam. The exam is one part of a two-part standardized test…

This document contains released reading comprehension passages, test items, and writing prompts from the Colorado Student Assessment Program for 2001. The sample questions and prompts are included without answers or examples of student responses. Test materials are included for: (1) Grade 4 Reading and Writing; (2) Grade 4 Lectura y Escritura…

The purpose of this book is to assist teachers as they work with emergent readers and writers--children who are in the early stages of reading and writing development, typically in preschool through grade 2. Section 1 of the book presents an overview of emergent literacy. Section 2 consists of a group of 15 informal early literacy pretests. The…

This article presents an overview of several written language assessment techniques, as well as a rationale and method for assessing the written expression of hearing-impaired individuals. Fluency, syntactic maturity, vocabulary, content, and conventions of notation are discussed; direct and indirect measures are compared; and a sample composition…

This handbook was developed to assist teachers in monitoring and charting the progress of kindergarten and primary grade students in the Chicago, Illinois, public schools. It is a loose-leaf binder of formal and informal tools designed to provide teachers with ongoing information about students' learning so they can promote continuous growth…

Possible integrated and independent tasks were pilot tested for the writing section of a new generation of TOEFL® (Test of English as a Foreign Language™) examination. This study examines the impact of various rating designs as well as the impact of the number of tasks and raters on the reliability of writing scores based on integrated and…

Background: This study evaluated the impact on student's writing ability of a structured writing program, called "Writing Wings," for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders developed by the Success For All Foundation (SFAF). Writing is a critical skill for success in school. Purpose: The study was intended to answer one confirmatory question,…

The purpose of this booklet is to provide administrators, teachers, and students in Alberta, Canada, with samples of students' writing that exemplify the criteria used to score students' written responses on the June 1991 Grade 9 Social Studies Achievement Test. The Grade 9 Social Studies Achievement Test consisted of two parts: Part A: Multiple…

A study was conducted at North Shore Community College (NSCC) to determine whether there was a particular score on the General Education Development (GED) Writing Skills Test that would predict a passing score for GED recipients on the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) General English Composition Examination. A total of 73 GED recipients…

Designed to provide an experience as close as possible to the actual assessment, this paper presents the revised model of assessment in writing for the Michigan High School Test (HST). The revisions incorporated into the paper reflect the testing transition from the High School Proficiency Test to the HST. Session 1 looks at how well students can…

Findings are reported from a longitudinal study, involving 8- to 10-year-old students in England, which evaluated and analyzed student writing samples. The writing samples were elicited by tests intended to produce two kinds of writing: a story and a description. (IAH)