Provides ways for teachers to make ninth-grade general mathematics courses more pleasant and productive. (MD)

Following a critique of so-called educational testing, this article examines three "educationally noteworthy school testing programs"--those of Portland, Oregon; Orange County, Florida; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and one noteworthy school with no standardized testing: the Prospect School in Bennington, Vermont. Derives some broad suggestions…

Argues that overreliance on standardized tests contributes to the deterioration of educational standards, teacher passivity, and lack of student involvement in academic studies, thus undermining democratic education; lists several alternatives to standardized testing. (MCG)

Recommends that education agencies adopt "intermediate implementation goals" for reform and assess progress toward these goals, in order to satisfy political pressure for visible improvements and thus retain public support. (MCG)

Reviews the Council of Chief State School Officers' effort to establish a nationwide system of educational indicators. Suggests the benefits of such a system. (MCG)

Describes a system in which questions tailored to the examinee's capabilities are administered by computer. Enumerates possible benefits of the system, reviews the "state of the art," and predicts potential applications of computerized adaptive testing. (MCG)

Recent advances in theory and research provide a basis for defining higher-order thinking skills and for designing tests of such skills. (MCG)

Research suggests that special tests of reasoning ability are superfluous. Reading comprehension and algebra scores on common aptitude and achievement tests are highly correlated with scores on several reasoning tests. Furthermore, three programs in reasoning skills have been shown to improve reading comprehension scores in various settings. (MCG)

The state of Connecticut has introduced a fourth-grade mastery test that assesses thinking skills. The test was developed cooperatively by the state's Department of Education, a testing corporation, and several cognitive psychologists; several alternative models of thinking were synthesized to produce a theoretical foundation for the test. (MCG)

Proposes an expanded definition of critical thinking and discusses its components. Includes an outline of goals and objectives for a critical thinking curriculum. (MCG)

Presents an interview with an intelligence expert and author who proposes that the scope of intelligence testing be broadened according to his new taxonomy of intelligence, and that schools use intelligence tests to diagnose individual students' strengths and weaknesses. (MCG)

A group of school districts in Western Oregon has developed a goal-based improvement model that provides teachers and administrators with a common information base. (Author)

Responding to doubts about the validity of test results that showed the Pittsburgh School District's school improvement project to be highly successful, the district validated its results by administering a different test to a representative sample of students in secure conditions. (MCG)

Describes the Philadelphia Public Schools' formative testing program, used to diagnose students' difficulties under mastery learning, especially in mathematics. Discusses in turn the classroom, school, and district aspects of the program and summarizes the program's essential features. A full-page chart outlining aids and hindrances to formative…

Classroom-based measures, including self-developed tests and tests provided with instructional materials, aid teachers far more than standardized tests. Yet administrators, researchers, and teacher educators emphasize the latter to the detriment of education. New research and training emphases, greater public awareness, and a resultant…