This document provides statements presented at the oversight hearing on testing and assessment evaluation to improve learning in the nation's schools. Walter Haney summarizes the National Commission on Testing and Public Policy's recent report, which concluded that while well-designed and responsibly used assessment is an important source of…

Performance-based assessment has the potential to support a richer curriculum and more accurately assess the skills of low-income minority students than standardized tests. Performance-based assessment has the following advantages: (1) it allows a wide range of expression; (2) it permits assessment of learning in a natural context while students…

A study examined whether ACT subtest scores can be used to predict reading skills, as measured by the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, with a degree of accuracy that would support their use as a screening device for college placement. ACT test scores of 2,431 students were used to predict Form C Nelson-Denny raw scores. ACT test scores from 3,016…

The teacher's role in documenting behavioral programs on individual education plan objectives for behaviorally disordered (BD) students is discussed, and assessment instruments are presented and reviewed. Student behavioral monitoring is examined using pre/post testing with standardized instruments, product measures that indicate progress or…

A description is given of a project in which elementary school teachers acted as researchers in collaboration with a graduate school. The project began when in a meeting of educators a discussion centered on teachers' discontent with standardized test scores. A commitment was made to explore alternative indicators of student achievement. Although…

The validity of grades given by secondary school teachers was studied. Two teacher-originated measures of performance and one independent standardized measure of achievement were examined. The teacher-originated grades were final examination grades (FINALs) and end of the semester marks (MARKs) for over 40 courses at all secondary levels. The…

This supplement is intended to help schools get the maximum amount of useful information from test results; information that will be helpful in program monitoring, grouping, planning instructional activities, and reporting results to parents and community. Contents include an introduction to test interpretation and interpreting of test scores;…

To determine the concurrent validity of a standardized test and its usefulness to educators, reading ratings from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were compared to teacher ratings and independently administered placement test ratings. Two hundred one primary children, the majority of whom read one or more years below grade level, took the ITBS by a…

This collection of articles is designed to enhance leadership for the promotion of effective evaluation and learning. The articles include an Introduction, by Fred Snyder; Exerting Leadership Toward Effective Evaluation of Pupil Performance, by T. L. Drake; The Elementary Principal as an Instructional Leader, by John Ourth; The Secondary Principal…

Presented at the 1974 Community/Junior College Conference, the papers in this monograph examine issues related to institutional, program, staff, and student evaluation. After K. Owen McCullough's and Earl M. Ramer's prefatory remarks, Laura Bornholdt presents a typology of negative staff attitudes toward program and institutional evaluations;…

The National Education Association (NEA) opposes the use of standardized, norm-referenced tests of intelligence, achievement, and aptitude, citing problems with their substance, structure, administration, and use. NEA suggests five alternatives: (1) performance contracts; (2) teacher-student and teacher-parent-student interviews; (3)…

The report describes the development of a set of equivalency tests for students in Nursing 2 who have had prior clinical laboratory training or experience in pediatrics, obstetrics, or geriatrics. For each of the three areas the examination packet includes: the course clinical objectives, the challenge examination objectives, a self-study guide, a…

This bulletin describes a trial examination for the geography curriculum as specified by the Certificate of Secondary Education. The total examination is composed of a 2 hour objective examination to test factual knowledge learned in the geography courses. A second part of the total examination consisted of: 1) a paper by the student on some…

A discussion of Norway's efforts to develop a national test of modern languages to be administered at the end of compulsory education looks at the objectives of language instruction and the test types chosen to address the specific competencies desired. (MSE)

Presents evaluation studies examining use of Direct Instruction (DI) Model on rural South Carolina students. Compares results of DI and conventional methods in reading, mathematics, language, and spelling. Results show DI students outperformed local comparison students on virtually every measure. (TES)