The Enhanced American College Test (ACT) and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) are the two primary college admission test batteries administered in Nevada. This report provides an overview of the two examinations and major trends pertinent to Nevada in 1991. These tests apply to only a portion of the high school student population, and are not…

This paper examines: (1) what those who directly employ and educate America's students after they leave high school think of the quality of the U.S. elementary and secondary schools; (2) what recent students and their parents think of the quality of the education they or their children received; and (3) what a cross section of Americans think…

This administrator's summary describes the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP). The TAP battery is designed to provide information about the strengths and weaknesses of the instructional program and about skills performance of individual students in grades 9 through 12. The TAP may be administered at the year's beginning, middle, or end;…

Teacher attitudes toward the high school proficiency test were identified through a 15-question survey distributed to 39 secondary school teachers representing various demographic school populations. The subjects were selected from five graduate education classes and a small city high school. The median number of years of teaching experience was…

From the approximately three dozen reports that describe the crisis in American education, the president of the Canadian Educational Researchers Association briefly describes four: "A Nation at Risk" (National Commission on Excellence in Education); "High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America" (Ernest L. Boyer);…

This guide intended for local school districts discusses the implementation of New Jersey's Special Review Assessment (SRA) process which provides high school students with the opportunity to demonstrate their mastery of basic skills by an assessment method other than the statewide graduation test. The process is required for eleventh graders who…

Researchers have found that students who attend Catholic high schools tend to outperform public high school students on standardized tests of achievement. Although many aspects of this finding have been examined in subsequent research, little attention has been paid to the issue of how ability grouping affects achievement across school sectors. A…

Annually in May and June, grade 3, 6, and 9 students in Alberta (Canada) take provincial achievement tests. This guide, in both English and French versions, explains the achievement tests. The tests are designed to indicate how well students meet the province's standards, to support teachers in planning instruction, and to inform the public about…

This paper reports on a longitudinal study with results drawn from 7 years of data on a group of young women (N=42), following them from the ninth grade through the third year of college. The purpose of the study was to trace development of the participants' thinking about school, career, and women's roles while also tracking their grades,…

The results of this study conclude that there is a multidimensional basis for test score inferences on the mathematics and critical reading sections of the SAT. Results from the exploratory analyses indicate that the data are multidimensional, as mathematics displayed two dimensions and critical reading displayed three dimensions. The correlations…

A random sample of the records of all juniors and seniors tested under the American College Testing Program (ACT) during 1986-87 was selected to assess the relationships among the number and type of college preparatory courses students take, their grades in those courses, and their ACT test scores. Focus was on the impact of differential…

An argument based on the content fit among a college course, the American College Testing Program (ACT) Assessment tests, and students' high school course work is described to justify use of ACT scores and self-reported high school grades for placement of college freshmen in undergraduate remedial education. A utility-based approach to quantifying…

The relationship between declining scores on national standardized tests and grade inflation is explored. Grade inflation refers to the indicated measure of evaluation of student performance having higher placement than is usual based on the performances. Data for this study were taken from the American College Testing (ACT) Program Class Profile…

This report summarizes evaluation results on the costs and benefits of administering ACT's EXPLORE assessment in AISD during its pilot year in 2000-2001.

Sex differences in variability in the national norms of the Differential Aptitude Tests, Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/Scholastic Aptitude Test, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales, and California Achievement Tests were examined. Compared to females, males were consistently more variable in quantitative reasoning, spatial visualization,…