The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is an enormous and enormously ambitious project. It generates data of a richness and complexity beyond any simple survey. The broad utilization of the information it provides can be aided through the use of more evocative data displays. In this report, the uses to which data tables are put is…

Considers four major decisions to illustrate the complexity of decision making about pretesting as part of the instructional process: whether a pretest should be administered; the behaviors that should be pretested; how pretesting should be accomplished; and how teaching strategies should be adjusted to pretest results. (MBR)

This investigation sought to ascertain whether significant differences in pupils' achievement when solving open-sentence types existed in relation to the following factors: school grade, sentence form as determined by the symmetric property of the equality relation, the operation specified in a sentence, the position of the placeholder in a…

This publication provides a reference for educators and others interested in conducting comparative studies relative to North Carolina tests. It includes norms, tables, and other statistical information for all state-developed tests (state-mandated and local-option tests for which baseline data are available) that were administered during the…

The College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), a component of Florida's system of educational accountability, is a lower-division college achievement test measuring student achievement of college-level communication and mathematics skills. Effective January 1996, students meeting certain requirements were exempt from the CLAST. This report…

The New Jersey Educational Assessment Program, designed to provide useful information to educational decision-makers at a variety of levels, is discussed as to a number of its characteristics. These program characteristics are: Goals--long range goals, outcome goals, and process goals; Test Development--fourth grade reading and mathematics and…

Investigated the acquisition of base-generated topics in Mandarin Chinese by British students learning Chinese. The hypothesis is not confirmed that it would not be difficult for English speakers to acquire the base-generated topic in Chinese because in the acquisition of Chinese, English-speaking learners are exposed to positive evidence of…

To provide information on performance and characteristics of effective and ineffective marginal personnel in the Army, a study has been made of approximately 1,500 men with experience ranging up to 20 years in four different Army MOSs. The study included a group of men with Armed Forces Qualification Test scores in the marginal range and a…

The efficiency of three written papers dealing with essay writing, comprehension, and literature papers as a test of English ability was assessed in a trial examination administered to 182 boys and 216 girls, all of whom were 16 years of age. Criterion was established on the basis of teachers' assessments of six essays written by the students…

This study introduces procedures for constructing a proficiency scale for a large-scale test by applying Tatsuoka's Rule Space Model. The SAT Mathematics (SAT M) Section 2 is used for illustrating the process and the results. A task analysis is summarized in a mapping sentence, and then 14 processes and content attributes are identified for…

This report covers Phase II of a two-phase project concerned with the development of new measures of cognitive variables in elementary school children. The four tasks undertaken in Phase II were: (1) prepare, revise and describe instruments designed to measure the cognitive variables categorized as concept formation, language development, logical…

A diagnostic test in English as a second language should be a series of miniature tests on specific problems. Subscores in each area should be considered rather than a total score. The results should be used to probe mastery in an area rather than provide the means for comparing one student against another. The statistical reliability of the…

Three systems for defining general cognitive abilities were analyzed to determine the nature of possible reference tests for cognitive abilities. They are the Guilford analysis of cognition, Guttman's facet design, and the Primary Mental Abilities of the Thurstones. This analysis led to a fourth schema for classifying abilities that deal with…

This publication presents information about the technical characteristics of the 1997 Florida Writing Assessment Program, Grades 4, 8, and 10. Descriptive and statistical information is provided for the census assessment, and the procedures used in prompt development, pilot testing, field testing, scoring, and item banking are reviewed. The…

In May 1983 the California State University (CSU) introduced the Entry-Level Mathematics (ELM) examination as part of its basic skills assessment process for first-time freshmen and undergraduate transfers. The exam is intended to provide students and counselors with information on the levels of mathematical competency possessed by entering…