This package contains articles in three general areas: items covering measurement topics; brief and practical guides on measurement techniques; and professional reading on broader assessment issues. The purpose of these publications by "Set" is to provide research information to teachers. The initial article, "Overview of Issues in…

Issues in designing valid tests for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are discussed. Test scores are often provided without any information on the nature of the tasks represented. Because test domains are defined by individual item writers, the generalizability between tests and items is suspect. While typical content…

This report presents the performance for school district categories and for individual school districts on the seventh grade Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) test. The Grade 7 criterion-referenced test contained three sections: mathematics, reading, and writing. Testing was conducted during February 1986. This report is in…

The three chapters of this handbook are designed to insure that any school can use teacher-made tests and performance assessments as components of a learning assessment plan. Focus is on criterion-referenced achievement tests developed in Illinois for assessing the cognitive and psychomotor domains of learning. The initial chapter is designed for…

In order to assess the locally developed curricula, the Cherry Creek School District of Colorado developed several objective-referenced tests focused on objectives that instructional staff have identified as important for all district students. The local assessments are designed to work in conjunction with the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBSs) to…

The statewide student assessment programs of the 15 member states of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) in the 1987-88 school year are described. Individual summaries of the testing programs provide information on the types of tests used in the SREB states--Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi,…

The feasibility of criterion referenced testing is held to be dependent on the tenability of two postulates: (1) that bias can be controlled in a principled manner from one test to the next; and (2) that one mental process measured by such tests may lawfully interact with another. Without the first postulate, criterion scores could not be…

This first report in the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) 1973-74 series presents the objectives of the program and indicates in detail some specific procedural questions relevant to this year's assessment. A revolutionary change in this year's program is the switch from normative tests to objective-referenced tests in reading and…

The existence of criterion-referenced (CR) measurement is questioned in this paper. Despite beliefs that differences exist between two alternative forms of measurement, CR and Norm Referenced (NR), an analysis of philosophical and psychological descriptions of measurement, as well as a growing number of empirical studies, reveal that the common…

General features of local and national programs for assessing achievements referencing the common instruction are discussed within a single mastery achievement testing framework. The envisioned programs differ only in informative detail. Most such differences are viewed as amenable to formalization and the basis for distinguishing between local…

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education uses state-developed, criterion-referenced tests for the purpose of evaluating programs funded by Chapter 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The agency's efforts to obtain approval from the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) to use state norms for evaluation purposes are…

A resource is presented for those who work in bilingual education and who are involved in test selection. Initial information is provided regarding tests that might be used for student identification, placement and diagnosis, progress monitoring, exiting decisions, and program evaluation purposes. No endorsement or recommendation is implied and no…

Four earlier collections of mathematics objectives grouped according to grade levels have been replaced by objectives organized by subject matter. Material is presented in a logically sequential order within each major heading. Objectives tend to start at the most elementary and progress to the most complex, so that teachers of the lower grades…

This article analyzes potential problems in using standardized achievement tests in early childhood education settings. The first problem discussed is whether the outcomes typically measured by standardized achievement tests are the outcomes about which early childhood educators are most concerned. Second, it is argued that a concern for test…

As part of a series of annual evaluations of the knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes of Massachusetts public-school students, this report represents the assessment of basic skills attainment of grade 12 students. The first three chapters contain a summary of the design and methodology of the testing program. The remaining five chapters…