As a result of the growing use of state and national testing of literacy and numeracy among school students, there are increasing demands for teachers to interpret assessment data. In light of this, there is a need to provide benchmarks or a framework that identifies critical aspects of teachers' understanding that are needed to interpret data…

DICOT, a computer program for the Rasch analysis of classroom tests, is described. Results are presented in a self-explanatory form. Person ability and item difficulty estimates are expressed in a familiar metric. Person and item fit statistics provide a diagnosis of individual children and identification of problematic items. (Author/DWH)

Describes the educational trend being debated in the United States and its effect on English instruction there and in Australia. (RL)

A previously published discussion of the ACER "Australian Studies in School Performance" suggests that the performance of students constitutes a concern; however, it is possible to be encouraged by evidence from the study that 97% of 10 year olds and 99% of 14 year olds have mastered the abilities to understand simple written sentences.…

This report reviews the results of the Australian Surveys of Primary School Achievement given every five years from 1955 to 1970. It compares results of the tests and explains why the survey was discontinued in 1975. Subjects were approximately 1,000 fifth-grade and 1,000 seventh-grade students selected as a representative sample of Australian…

This booklet was designed to help teacher education students identify and explain certain basic principles of educational measurement and apply them to the development of a valid and reliable assessment program that measures the achievement of a set of educational objectives from a curriculum that they teach. It is intended for use in the Sydney…

In July 2001, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) agreed to the development of assessment instruments and key performance measures for reporting on student skills, knowledge and understandings in primary science. It directed the newly established Performance Measurement and Reporting Taskforce…