This paper presents the Final Report on the Audio-Digital MCAS Pilot Program. The Department and Recording For the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) have collaborated to provide audio-digital read-aloud editions of the Grade 10 English Language Arts and Mathematics MCAS tests for a small number of students with disabilities such as dyslexia and/or…

Background: In this article we address some of the challenges posed by the development of national assessment systems and discuss the need for high quality information on trends in attainment; support for school improvement processes and ways in which learning should be enhanced through valid assessment. Purpose: Key elements are explored,…

Reporting the results of statewide assessment looms as a problem as more states pass from the planning to implementation phase in their assessment programs. When energies are focused on the purpose of the assessment, formulating objectives, and instrument construction, reporting takes a back seat because it happens last. There are some general…

Suggestions for adapting NAEP procedures for local use are based on the assumptions that instructional decisions can be improved through systematic gathering of data and that every student is not tested. (Author/KM) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Procedures (Utilization).

The performance of 42 hearing-impaired children and 42 matched hearing peers was examined on the Category, Tactual Performance, and Trail Making tests of the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery for Older Children. The major finding was that performance of deaf students was similar to that of hearing controls. (SLD)

Reliability is a problem inherent in all educational assessments, but the amount of attention this particular problem should be given is related to the function and use of the assessment. In this article, classification accuracy is put forward as a conceptualization of reliability that is meaningful for a large number of educational assessments.…

The Swedish school system comprises: (1) Pre-primary school (Forskola), typical age 1-5; (2) Preschool class in the compulsory school (Grundskola) typical age 6 (participation voluntary); (3) Compulsory school, typical age 7-16, grades 1-9, and (4) Upper secondary school, 17 programmes (4 mainly academic, 13 vocational), typical age 16-19, grades…

In order to evaluate and obtain information about the usefulness of the Career Education Measurement System, a questionnaire was developed to survey school personnel perception and interpretation of the reporting system in Texas. The responses to the questionnaire were examined for 22 test instruments used in a pilot test to determine if the items…

The objectives of the first year of the Wisconsin Assessment Program were: (1) to develop and refine the statewide assessment processes including instrument development, instrument administration, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of results; (2) to provide a preliminary profile of how well students demonstrate their knowledge and skills…

Statewide testing can serve four important functions: can illustrate superior results of a group of schools where no one would expect it and raise questions about how they accomplished it; statewide testing deals with the generally lower scores of disadvantaged minorities, it can put the differences in perspective by showing comparable differences…

A quantitative procedure is presented for identifying effective schools, those producing superior student test performance (grades 2-11), in 1983 in Dallas. Stipend awards were given to teachers in schools ranked in the top quarter of each grade level category using the lower bound statistic based on individually standardized gain scores to rank…

This report presents the national and state results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessment in mathematics and compares them to results from assessments in 2003 and in the first year data were available, usually 1990. In 2005, nationally representative samples of about 172,000 fourth-grade and 162,000 eighth-grade…

The success of standards-based education systems depends on 2 elements: strong standards, and assessments that measure what the standards expect. States that have or adopt test-based accountability programs claim that their tests are aligned to their standards. But there has been up to now no independent methodology for checking alignment. This…

What does it look like when a school uses data wisely? "Data Wise in Action", a new companion and sequel to the bestselling "Data Wise", tells the stories of eight very different schools following the Data Wise process of using assessment results to improve teaching and learning. "Data Wise in Action" highlights the…