In 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) included a Trial State Assessment which, for the first time in the NAEP's history, made voluntary state-by-state assessments. This 1992 mathematics report marks the first attempt of the National Center for Education Statistics to shift to standards-based reporting of National…

Emphasized in this speech are the innovative practices in the standardized foreign language testing programs sponsored by the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) and the Modern Language Association (MLA). The CEEB projected listening and reading "composite tests" and changes in the French and Latin Advanced Placement Tests are…

The characteristics of selected U.S. citizens studying medicine abroad have been considered in this study from the perspective of their academic levels and their demographic origins. From these viewpoints, a definite profile emerges of the average student who was sponsored for Part 1 of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) tests by the…

The General Accounting Office (GAO), at the request of the House Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education, conducted studies on the extent and cost of testing in the United States, the experience of Canada in testing, and initial efforts to set standards for judging student performance on…

This report is aimed at helping Congress better understand the functions, history, capabilities, limitations, uses, and misues of educational tests; learn more about the promises and pitfalls of new assessment methods and technologies; and identify and weigh policy options affecting educational policy. To prepare this report, the Office of…

This critique of the "America 2000" educational reform initiative claims that its fundamental proposals highlight "old" ideas based on a "puritanic" perfect society with little attention to equity and the multidimensional needs of such groups as African-American at-risk students. The paper discusses the impact of the…

This paper presents the appendices to the "High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Problems for the No Child Left Behind Act" report. It contains the following appendices: (1) Example of Context for Assessing State-Level Stakes Sheet--Connecticut; (2) Example of Completed Rewards and Sanctions Worksheet--Connecticut; (3) Directions…

Public examinations in developing countries play a critical role in the selection of students for participation in the educational system. The examinations tend to be highly academic, bearing little reference to the everyday lives of students, limited to paper-and-pencil tests, and geared toward discriminating among high achieving students.…

This document is a study of standardized tests by sub-group, ranking the states according to scores divided (in turn) by gender, race and ethnicity, location of school, family income, parental education, teacher qualification and experience, limited English proficiency, special education participation rate, and per-pupil spending. The tests…

Group differences among ethnic and racial groups on a series of educational measures and outcomes are examined. African-American and Hispanic students perform substantially lower than white and Asian students on the SAT I. These substantial differences also exist on a variety of other admissions tests used for undergraduate, graduate, and…

This report presents results of a study addressing two questions: (1) the role of certificates, licenses, diplomas, and other creditials in a decentralized vocational education system of public and proprietary schools, community colleges, union apprenticeships, the military, and correspondence schools and (2) the role that certification can play…

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), standardized test scores are the indicator used to hold schools and school districts accountable for student achievement. Each state is responsible for constructing an accountability system, attaching consequences--or stakes--for student performance. The theory of action implied by this…

Less than one third of American eighth graders score in the two highest performance levels on the grade 8 mathematics test given by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Only a little over one third of Massachusetts eighth graders score at the two highest performance levels on the state's own grade 8 mathematics test. In 2002, the…