Contrary to the impression which exists in some quarters, criterion-referenced measurements are not a recent development that modern technology has made possible and that effective education requires. The use of criterion-referenced measurements can not be expected to improve significantly our evaluations of educational achievement. The major…

Given the scope of technology and the inherent difficulties of measuring such broad phenomena, this article explores two strategies for assessing technological literacy. One approach is drawn from a multiple measurement strategy often used to assess achievement, the test battery approach; the other is based on well-known interest inventories and…

Recent research has come a long way in describing the linguistic features of large samples of written texts, although a satisfactory description of L2 writing remains problematic. Even when variables such as proficiency, language background, topic, and audience have been controlled, straightforward predictive relationships between linguistic…

The purpose of this study was to obtain empirical evidence as to whether the observed achievement gap between low and high socio-economic-status (SES) children remains unchanged, increases or decreases with increasing age, and to determine the consistency of statistical methods for measuring growth. Four methods of measuring change in achievement…

A description is provided of comprehensive Achievement Monitoring (CAM), a tool which enables classroom teachers to function as researchers and evaluators. Part I reviews the CAM philosophy and the section following discusses computerized feedback in CAM operations. The final two portions of the report describes the use of CAM in mathematics…

Studies processes in 49 Canadian K-13 classrooms to identify teachers' student achievement evaluation methods. Teacher interviews and categorization of their testing instruments showed teachers beyond early primary grades used evaluations mainly to generate marks for reporting purposes. Such reports seen as reaffirming existing judgments, rather…

Argues that international assessments that show U.S. educational inferiority are unwarranted, reviews the history of these assessments, and evaluates the major explanations of the achievement differences. It also examines the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of curriculum-centered explanations because of their relevance to school reform.…

The relationship between the behavioral consistency procedure and two other procedures (application form analysis and rating scales) were investigated through a comparison of initial employment and hiring practices used by the U.S. Civil Service Commission. The position of Budget Analyst was initially assessed in terms of five achievement areas…

The writer calls attention to the many traps associated with one of the most frequent uses of assessment: the technical difficulties of measuring changes in learning over time. Noting that psychometricians don't like "change" or "difference" scores in statistical analyses because they tend to have lower reliability than the original measures…

Asserts that three social dominance issues have caused and continue to perpetuate achievement disparities among poor and minority students: the assumption of rightness, the luxury of ignorance, and the legacy of privilege. Describes school district initiatives, leadership, and research findings related to overcoming this achievement gap. Contends…

This paper describes a project to develop an alternate approach to the certification of teachers other than the approval of transcripts submitted by individual candidates or of the programs offered by institutions engaged in teacher preparation. The purpose of the project was to identify a set of "generic competencies" and to validate them in…

The methods and instruments used for the appraisal of teachers' performances in the classroom are outlined in this booklet. Four major considerations of this evaluation process are discussed in the introduction: (1) rationale for a process of appraisal; (2) definition of the appraisal process; (3) description of the appraisal process; and (4)…

Part of the Evaluation of Teaching Project (EOTP), this research report uses statistical analysis to examine: 1) whether students who had an opportunity to learn classroom material differ in posttest achievement from those students who did not have sufficient time to learn, 2) whether the relationships between teacher behaviors and student…

The low rate of agreement among readers of College Entrance Examination essays suggested the need to examine the qualities in student writing which caused wide variance in grading. To study this question, 300 homework papers by freshmen at three universities were graded by 60 distinguished readers in six fields. The following factors, by rank,…

Sixth to eighth grade students received points based on weekly quiz performance and a base score derived from a pretest and adjusted to reflect actual weekly performance. The points were reported in a weekly newsletter. Students in experimental classes achieved more on a final standardized test than did control classes. (Author/GDC)