Discussed in the report on the state of the art are the procedural, conceptual, and methodological limitations of achievement assessment of visually handicapped students. (SB)

The purpose of this study was to examine the homogeneity in difficulty of item domains and the effectiveness of Rasch pre-equating procedures for adjusting test scores for differences in the difficulty of tests constructed by sampling from item domains. The data used were taken from a field test and calibration of 810 tenth-grade items in…

An attempt to outline the simplest framework for achievement testing that shows the relationship between achievement tests and the instructional programs, and to show how achievement testing may be implemented within this framework. (Author/DEP)

The Montgomery County Public Schools system in Maryland has initiated a demonstration project which will administer the released writing exercises from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to a random sample of students aged 13 and 17. This project will be unique in terms of the application of NAEP exercises in a local school district.…

A description of the comprehensive testing program model currently in the Public Schools of the District of Columbia is provided. The primary objective of the testing program is to facilitate academic instructions of individual students. The four types of testing programs in the D.C. public schools are Standardized Achievement Tests,…

Two techniques for writing achievement test items to accompany instructional materials are contrasted: writing items from statements of instructional objectives, and writing items from semi-automated rules for transforming instructional statements. Both systems resulted in about the same number of faulty items. (Author/JKS)

Criticizes Robert Slavin's "best evidence" rejection of mastery learning research for being potentially biased, highly subjective, and misleading. Apparently, Slavin threw out studies of less than four weeks' duration, discounted certain nonclassroom results achieved by teachers, and rejected studies not using standardized,…

The 25 tests cited in this bibliography cover all grade levels. Test content includes micro- and macro-economics and basic economic concepts. Some of the measures are equivalency tests and there are a few Spanish language editions. Although grades 1 through adult are represented, the tests are primarily designed for grades 7 through 12 and adult.…

The Chicago Public Schools have been developing and implementing a citywide instructional program of continuous progress/mastery learning in reading. It includes the delineation of a K-8 continuum of instructional objectives; a criterion-referenced testing program which serves as the basis for instruction, promotion, and administrative monitoring;…

Focusing on the use of "paper and pencil" criterion-referenced tests in educational measurement, and to correct misconceptions, the definitions of basic terms and historical antecedents are discussed. Classifications of the tests are compared with other achievement tests. The phases in developing criterion-referenced tests are presented with the…

This mathematics achievement test for grades 7 and 8 is based on objectives identified in "Guidelines to Mathematics, 6-8." The test can be used as a criterion-referenced instrument, a diagnostic instrument, or an achievement instrument. Each test item is cross-referenced to the corresponding student behavioral objective in the above…

Criterion-referenced measurement (CRM) has received increasing attention in regular education. However, it is in education for handicapped children that CRM's flexibility for individualization of both instruction and evaluation become even more fully realized. Research is described on one of the first CRM systems (Individual Achievement Monitoring…

A well-constructed criterion-referenced test has an unambiguous descriptive scheme, an adequate number of items, a sufficiently limited focus, reliability, validity, and comparative data. (Author/MLF)

A unified framework for validating criterion-referenced test (CRT) interpretation is proposed. Using functional literacy as an illustration, the instructional outcomes assessed are called achievement constructs, and described in psychological and behavioral terms. The proposed construct validation methods can yield tests more closely linked to…

On April 5, 2002, the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) entered into a compliance agreement with the U.S. Department of Education to bring the state into compliance with the provisions of the following federal laws: Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1994, P.L. 103-382 and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)…