This text is designed to present the major concepts of performance-based instruction for use by teachers, supervisors, and administrators. Chapter 1 discusses student expectations of instruction, including such topics as "Let Me Start Where I Am,""Tell Me What to Expect," and "Give Me a Test, but Don't Threaten Me." Chapter 2 defines effective…

Despite their advantages over other assessment techniques, current achievement and ability tests are not especially efficient sources of information for the range of educational decisions for which they are used and relied upon. Two major types of tests, criterion-referenced and norm-referenced, and two types of use, student evaluation and program…

Monies granted under Title VI-B of the Education of the Handicapped Act funded an accountability study of the Duval County Program (Jacksonville, Florida) for trainable mentally handicapped (TMH) children and youth. An organized collection of approximately 675 behavioral objectives and accompanying criterion test items was developed for evaluating…

Some of the general considerations and requirements for the establishment of a testing policy and procedures for a large education system are presented. Testing policy is considered necessary to establish a common understanding of the position of testing in the education program, the facilitation of the use of tests for academic gain, and to…

The utility of the pretraining of task-relevant cognitive skills within the context of experimental research methodology was investigated in this study. A criterion referenced pretraining multi-media product was developed and applied to support the initial phase of an experimental research effort in which several instructional methods for training…

A statewide sustained effort to improve student learning in Missouri by adopting and adapting promising research-based educational practices is described. The concept of an Instructional Management System (IMS) with desired learner outcomes determining both instruction and testing was suggested to local school districts beginning in 1980. In 1985,…

In 1984 an evaluation team examined the Maryland Functional Testing Program (MFTP), a statewide competency-based, criterion-referenced testing program that was instituted to limit awarding of high school diplomas to those students who had earned scores above cut scores on a series of achievement tests. This article examines the procedures the…

Some special problems associated with evaluating intelligent computer-assisted instruction (ICAI) programs are addressed. This paper intends to describe alternative approaches to the assessment and improvement of such applications and to provide examples of efforts undertaken and shortfalls. Issues discussed stem chiefly from the technical demands…

A brief paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual meeting (April 1977) describes the development, and analysis of the Instructional Management System (IMS) which is used in the Lansing elementary schools. The report is divided into three sections: a historical overview of the program, a description of IMS, and an…

As a result of the 1976 Educational Accountability Act, minimal competency tests were developed for grades 3, 5, 8 and 11 by the Florida State Board of Education. Results of the first administration of the 11th grade tests showed that the failure rate for minority black students was much higher than for white students. Results of the tests…

Technical considerations associated with item selection and reliability assessment are considered in relation to criterion-referenced tests constructed to provide group information. The purpose is to emphasize test building and the evaluation of test scores in program evaluation studies. It is stressed that an evaluator employ a performance or…

The potential use of criterion referenced tests (CRT) and norm referenced tests (NRT) in the same testing program is discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of each are listed, and the best solution, a merging, is proposed. To merge CRTs and NRTs into an overall testing program, meaningful and useful to all levels, consideration must be given…

The John Jay High School Bilingual Program served 206 New York City Spanish, French, and Italian dominant students and 98 English dominant students in grades 9-12. Non English dominant students received instruction ln English as a Second Language or remedial English. English dominant students participated in the program through Hispanic Art…

As part of the Quality Assurance procedures, a final test was administered to a sample of the classes participating in the 1970-71 Instructional Concepts Program (ICP). The posttest was designed to measure end-of-program performance on each of the six program outcomes: Color, Shape, Size, Position, Amount, and Pre-Mathematics. This report…

This paper delineates several problems which arise when criterion-referenced test results are used to evaluate the effects of a specific educational treatment. Focus is on these topics: (1) the aggregation of individual students' data on objectives, (2) the sensitivity of the instrument to instruction, (3) the interpretation of…