This digest considers the use of performance assessment within outcomes-based accountability systems for students with and without disabilities. Application of performance assessment to students with disabilities involves defining the outcomes, developing performance standards, developing assessment accommodations, and scoring. Implications of…

This brief presents the case for the reform of assessment systems as an essential component of systemic reform. The scope includes ways to share conceptual understanding among all stakeholders in the educational system, ways to evaluate the impact of systemic reforms in terms of student attainment of relevant goals, and ideas on how assessment can…

Essential to the definition of an effective school is an operational definition of minimum academic mastery as the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and concepts that enable the student to be demonstrably successful in the next grade level in the same school or in any other school in the United States. An effective schools program, such as the one…

The three articles in this newsletter focus on questions of what teacher knowledge consists of and how it can be measured. Three contemporary efforts to assess teacher knowledge, each with a different purpose, are presented. The first, based on a report of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, summarizes state assessment efforts and…

The philosophy of accreditation is discussed in a paper commissioned by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools for a project on "Rethinking Accreditation." After defining accreditation and distinguishing it from assessment, evaluation and "meta-evaluation" are discussed, including the nature of accreditation in…

A comparison of the reading skills assessment programs at three community colleges in Virginia and New Jersey is presented as part of an examination of the kinds of placement decisions that are made from assessment test data. Introductory comments focus on the controversy surrounding the growing emphasis on skills assessment in open-door community…

Study was designed to measure student attitudes toward the pass-fail system of evaluation for the student teaching sequence. Questionnaire was administered to 158 student teachers and to 32 faculty members. Results of the chi-square analysis indicated that student and faculty attitudes were strongly positive. (Author)

Emerging themes in student assessment include: (1) faculty need to specify skills and knowledge expectations for effective assessment; (2) assessment criteria must be established; (3) there are many ways to assess student learning; and (4) faculty must become more involved in assessment. (MSE)

The purpose of this professional development manual is to provide materials and activities for developing and using assessments in social studies. The manual came about through the efforts of the 25 state consortium Comprehensive Social Studies Assessment Project (CSSAP) to make the alignment of assessments, curricula, and instructional programs…

As more and more states and districts develop their alternate assessments for those students unable to participate in the regular assessment, they are faced with the challenge of setting standards for their alternate assessments. Despite the variability in alternate assessments currently developed, including checklists, structured and unstructured…

Developed by classroom teachers during the development phase of Minnesota's Graduation Standards, this performance package is made up of locally designed assignments that, taken together, show whether a student has learned and can apply the knowledge and skills related to the presentation of a film/video exhibition. It begins with reference to the…

This paper presents a new method to test for grade inflation. Defining grade inflation as the decreasing value of grades in the coin of student achievement, the study avoids the assumption that a rise in mean grade is a necessary condition of grade inflation. The study, which was conducted at a single university, also sought to determine whether…

Faculty members at Idaho State University evaluated the use of case analysis as an accountability measure for demonstrating teacher candidates' abilities to meet targeted course, institutional, and state teaching standards for student motivation and classroom management. Thirty-four teacher candidates completed a case analysis assessment.…

Maine's approach to assessing state standards, the Learning Results, has been to use a combination of state and local measures in building a "comprehensive assessment system." The state test, the Maine Educational Assessment (MEA), was revised in 1999 to align more closely with content standards and performance indicators established in…

The evolution of a group monitoring system directed at rendering the monitoring process more open, as well as improving feedback and direct tutor involvement in the process, is described. Issues discussed at Open University tutors' meetings include grading standards and personal knowledge of students. (AF)