Under the Florida A+ Accountability Program, Florida's schools are graded based on student performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Previously, when schools would earn their second failing grade within four years, students assigned to these schools were offered school vouchers which parents and guardians could use to transfer…

This study investigated the relationship between the scales used for the NMSBA assessments and the RIT scales used to report performance on Northwest Evaluation Association tests. The study estimated the changes in reading and mathematics RIT score equivalents for the NMSBA performance levels in those subjects. Test records for more than 17,000…

This study investigated the impact of the Benedum Collaborative Model of Teacher Education at West Virginia University (WVU). Under this model, Professional Development Schools (PDSs) were expected to be sites of best practice, centers of inquiry, and empowered communities. The model raised admissions requirements, reinvented the curriculum, and…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the nation's only ongoing representative sample survey of student achievement in core subject areas. In 2000, NAEP conducted a national mathematics assessment of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students. State-level results were also collected at the fourth and eighth grades within…

Examined 6 widely used grade-8 standardized tests for content, required processes, and level to determine their alignment with the 5-8 NCTM "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards." Concluded that these tests inadequately covered the 5-8 standards. A follow-up study examined items from newly developed and foreign tests to demonstrate the…

This study examined gender differences in students' scientific literacy as measured by OECD-PISA. In particular, we focused on the 2437 students from 140 Hong Kong schools. Hong Kong boys' and girls' science scores did not differ overall. However, boys scored higher than girls at the higher percentiles (75th and above). Moreover, specific test…

In this report we explore the role of reviewer agreement in judgments about alignment between tests and standards. Specifically, we consider approaches to describing alignment that incorporate reviewer agreement information in different ways. The essential questions were whether and how taking into account reviewer agreement changes the picture of…

The State of Florida Department of Education provides pre-and-post-graduation data for public high school graduates throughout Florida. These data were used for the present report to produce data sets for all M-DCPS regular high schools and charter high schools graduating students in 2007 and 2008. Summary data for the district are also provided.…

The low performance of Chile in the TIMSS 1998/99 international study of mathematics and science achievement was a great disappointment for that country. To investigate the likely causes for low performance in mathematics, this study (1) compared Chile to three countries and one large school system that had similar economic conditions but superior…

A panel of expert referees from the Philadelphia school district categorized items from secondary-level standardized mathematics tests according to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) subobjectives for mathematics. The following tests were covered by the study: (1) California Achievement Tests (Levels 19 and 20); (2) Comprehensive…

Describes an investigation which assessed predictive value of Iowa Test of Educational Development, Science Research Associates Inc.'s Computer Programming Aptitude Battery, and Wolfe Programming Aptitude Test for predicting secondary school students' success in computer science courses, to develop a prediction model, and to estimate mastery…

Recently NWEA completed a project to connect the scale of the WKCE with NWEA's RIT scale. Six Wisconsin school systems participated in the study, using test information from a group of over 1,500 students enrolled in fourth, eighth, and tenth grade who took both the WKCE and NWEA tests in the fall of 2003. Information from these tests was used in…

The impact of different elementary school curricula (grades three and six) on standardized achievement test scores at item and objective levels, and differences across curricula in generation of item factor loadings were studied. Specific and generally small differences in textbooks within a district were not significant. (TJH)

Described are important changes that will be introduced in the mathematics sections of the new Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The three main changes are (1) permission to use calculators; (2) inclusion of open-ended questions; and (3) content revisions consistent with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics "Curriculum and Evaluation…

Explores whether scale economies in a single statewide, nonproperty-tax-supported district differ from studies in more traditional settings. The sample consisted of 179 randomly selected Hawaiian elementary and middle schools enrolling sixth-grade students. Stanford Achievement Test scores for grades three and six were used. Smaller schools had…