The Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) was developed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), in response to Texas House Bill 72 (1984), which mandated a new basic skills assessment program for mathematics, reading, and writing at grades 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. This is one in a series of Instructional Strategies Guides designed to…

This report presents the performance for school district categories and for individual school districts on the seventh grade Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) test. The Grade 7 criterion-referenced test contained three sections: mathematics, reading, and writing. Testing was conducted during February 1986. This report is in…

To alleviate the possibility that Florida's College Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST) is biased against non-native English speakers because of its time limits, additional time was allowed for some samples. CLAST, designed to measure communicative and computational competence in college sophomores, has four subtests: reading, writing, computation,…

The Functional Academic Skills Tests (FAST) was developed to measure the basic skills of mathematics, reading, and writing in teachers employed by the Houston, Texas, Independent School District. The three content domains were drawn from the Pre-Professional Skills Tests (PPST). These sets of skills, or proficiencies, were amplified by supporting…

Intended for use by school administrators, guidance counselors, teachers and proctors, this manual contains general information on the New York State Regents examinations and competency tests, as well as specific regulations and procedures for ordering, administering, and rating these examinations. The competency testing requirements for a local…

During the 1982-83 school year the Spencerport (New York) Central School District began a comprehensive project to study the effective schools research and its implications at all levels of a suburban school system. A leadership planning team (consisting of teachers, principals, and district personnel) participated in a series of workshops and…

This book examines the conditions for learning from the perspective of those students for whom schools are not productive and satisfying settings. Both current and desired characteristics of school environments are examined from the standpoint of their effect on marginal students. Questions probed include how difficulties begin and why individuals…

The reading learning objectives for fifth graders contained in this volume are congruent with the Texas "State Board of Education Rules for Curriculum." These objectives and the measurement specifications are provided for use by teachers and other educators responsible for student instruction and for test development specialists involved…

Beginning with the 1985-86 school year, the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) tests have been based on the objectives provided in this publication for teachers and test development specialists. The writing skills objectives for grade 7 require: (1) knowledge of standard capitalization; (2) knowledge of standard punctuation;…

In 1985-86, after five years of implementation, the New York City (New York) Public Schools transferred responsibility for the Promotional Policy Program to the community school district. This report provides information about the success of the remedial reading program under this new organization in terms of student outcomes. Promotional…

Based on telephone interviews with educational officials from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, an overview of the use and impact of standardized tests in the United States during the 1986-87 school year was developed. In addition to interviewing officials from all state departments of education, officials from 56 sample school districts…

First presented as papers in a symposium on literacy conducted at the University of Alabama, essays in this volume explore three areas of human literacy--law, linguistics, and the English language; testing; and literacy's relation with culture and human consciousness. Following an introduction examining literacy as a human problem, the following…

The 11th annual report from the New Jersey Basic Skills Council provides information on the level of basic skills (verbal, computation, and elementary algebra) among freshmen admitted to New Jersey's public colleges and universities. Proficiency levels are estimated from performance on the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test (NJCBSPT).…

This study was designed to examine the extent to which Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) constructing meaning scores correlate with Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) reading scores and with performance on ITBS items dealing with literal meaning, inferences, and generalizations. In addition, this study assessed the ability of the IGAP reading…

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has had a competency-based vocational instructor approval process for more than two and one-half decades. Perhaps the most important element in this process has been the vocational competency testing. Although some say that Massachusetts is out of step, others feel that Massachusetts has a well-established testing…