The mandated minimum competency programs of two states--Pennsylvania and Maryland--are examined, and some of the effects on school districts of raising the testing stakes are reviewed. In a survey conducted during the winter of 1986-87 in Pennsylvania and Maryland, one teacher, one principal, and one central office staff member each from 277…

Information on the status of Rhode Island public schools is provided in the form of educational indicators of three types: (1) education outcomes; (2) community context; and (3) policies and practices. Education outcomes are student testing and other measures of student success. Included are student results on the Metropolitan Achievement Test,…

The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) is designed to monitor the transition of a national sample of young adults as they progress from junior to senior high school and then to postsecondary education or the world of work. An in-depth description is provided of the rationale, development, and psychometric properties of the…

The analysis of North Carolina performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is part of a larger program addressing the improvement of public school students' performance on skills measured by the SAT. This second of two volumes presents individual school system profiles for the mathematics and verbal sections of the SAT for the 126 school…

In the spring of 1988, Massachusetts conducted its second Educational Assessment Program to assess the performance of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies. Students' responses to open-ended questions in one form of the reading test were studied. One-twelfth of the fourth-graders, one-sixteenth of the…

The redesigned Student Descriptive Questionnaire (SDQ) provides information about the number of years of study and types of courses in Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) examinees' academic backgrounds. This study used data from the 1987 National Sample Tape, which contains SDQ responses and score information from 100,000 seniors in the class of 1987.…

This document is the annual report on the South Carolina Basic Skills Assessment Program (BSAP) established by legislation in 1978. In 1988, the tests and the monitoring of the instructional components were completed on time. The tests include: (1) first grade readiness; (2) tests for grades 1, 2, 3, 6, and 8; and (3) the Exit Examination required…

A strategy that has been initiated to respond to assertions that out-of-date norms distort standardized achievement test results involves annually updating the norms for achievement tests to avoid the production of inflated scores through aging norms. The effect of the application of normative trend data to the obtained test results in an urban…

This report describes and presents the 1984-85 results of the norm-referenced and criterion-referenced testing programs used in the Los Angeles Unified School District (California) to evaluate student progress and to identify instructional areas needing remediation. The norm-referenced Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS), Form U, is used to…

This three-part document provides strategies for evaluating the impact of a province-wide testing program in Ontario (Canada) and reviews the literature on the impact of testing. Part One identifies the effects of province-wide examinations for selected high school courses and proposes four studies to monitor these effects: (1) an analysis of data…

Alaskan students' scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) increased nine points between 1984 and 1985, matching the national gain. These scores marked the fourth year of increases following 17 years of consistently declining scores. Thirty-three percent of Alaska's high school seniors took the SAT in 1985. The combined score of 923 was 17…

This study analyzed existing Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores and selected student background variables to answer the following seven questions about students planning to major in the humanitiess and related social sciences: (1) Have SAT and GRE scores for these students declined? (2) In what ways have…

Results of the Wisconsin Pupil Assessment Program's 1984 test administrations are summarized. A sample of 16,000 public school students were tested. Tests included objective-referenced tests in writing and understanding of economics, and the norm-referenced Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) test of reading, mathematics, and language.…

Diverse information is compiled to begin to address the question of how well students in Alaska are achieving. In 1987, each of the 55 districts in Alaska submitted results of its standardized testing program for Reading, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics, Mathematics Problem Solving, and Language Arts for the three school years from 1984-85…

While the seventh and ninth grade Maryland Functional Mathematics Tests (MFMT) appear valid and well constructed, the 65 percent passing rate for Montgomery County Public Schools' ninth grade students raises questions about the 81 percent passing score set for the MFMT. This standard is far stiffer than the 59 percent set for the Maryland…