This article proposes that sampling design effects have potentially huge unrecognized impacts on the results reported by large-scale district and state assessments in the United States. When design effects are unrecognized and unaccounted for they lead to underestimating the sampling error in item and test statistics. Underestimating the sampling…

In response to concerns raised by principals at both the elementary and intermediate levels regarding the amount of instructional time consumed by students taking tests which were not related to day-to-day instruction, a study was conducted of the amount of time spent preparing to give such tests and actually administering them, and the manner in…

It is argued that achievement test means, based on group scores, or other district-wide summary scores do not provide valid measures for diagnosing curriculum weaknesses nor for initiating curriculum changes. Group scores are probably valid for some purposes, but should not be used as criterion variables for evaluating the effectiveness of…

This study investigated the "customization" of a standardized achievement test to measure the effect on group and individual scores. "Customization" refers to the modification of an existing test to more closely match test specifications of the entity using the test, usually a state or large school district. Results of an…