No description available.

The purpose of this study was to review the historical origins and chronology of the student assessment movement in the United States and to describe and analyze the development of Virginia's higher education student assessment policy within that movement. "Student assessment," the process of determining whether or not students have met educational goals set by their programs of study, institutions of higher education, or the state is a relatively new event in Virginia. Major participants involved in the passage and implementation of Virginia's policy were identified from historical documents and interviewed based on their specific areas of knowledge.;From the interviews and document analysis it was found that the historical origins for Virginia's student assessment policy were synonymous with the history of accrediting agencies. A second possible origin for student assessment was the response to periods of expansion and curriculum development that occurred from 1918-1928 and again from 1952-1983.;The recent push for student assessment was spurred in the mid-1980's by the release of several national studies on the condition of the curriculum, instruction, and student achievement in higher education in the United States. These reports caused the states to question the credibility of regional accrediting agencies as a means of ensuring educational quality. as a result, at least two-thirds of the states have instituted some form of student assessment legislation since 1984.;The state of Virginia's student assessment policy began in 1985 with the passage of Senate Joint Resolution 125 which called on the State Council for Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to investigate means by which student achievement could be measured to assure the citizens of Virginia of the continuing high quality of higher education in the state. The study was conducted and presented to the 1986 General Assembly of Virginia as Senate Document No. 14 and was accepted in Senate Joint Resolution 83. This resolution requested the state-supported institutions of higher education to establish student assessment programs in consultation with SCHEV. In 1989, Senate Bill 534 amended The Code of Virginia giving SCHEV formal authority to oversee student assessment activities.;After completing the case study, the study was compared for fit with six models of policy formulation (elite, rational, incremental, group, systems, and institutional) as proposed by Thomas Dye in his 1972 book, Understanding Public Policy. It was found that the systems model was the best fit of the six models. However, since vestiges of the other models existed within Virginia's student assessment policy formulation process the study proposed a revised systems model that included each of Dye's six models.

The purpose of this study was to examine the test performance of five randomly selected groups of 1978 students on five different versions of the Stanford Achievement Test. Three types of comparisons were made. First, the test scores of the five groups of 1978 students in grade 8.1 were compared with each other on the 1929, 1940, 1952, 1964, and 1973 Stanford Achievement Tests. Second, the test scores of each 1978 test group were compared with the test scores of the 8.1 normlng group for each test. Last, the test scores of 1978 students were compared with the test scores of students of the same age in the normlng groups for the five different tests. A total of 236 subjects from one middle school in Upper East Tennessee was used. The 236 subjects were randomly assigned to five groups. The five groups were randomly paired with the five different Stanford Achievement Tests and were tested under the same testing conditions. A computer comparison of the past achievement of the five 1978 test groups proved the groups equal in ability at the time of testing. In making the comparisons, it was found that students in the 1978 test groups were not achieving less than students in the past in all subjects. Reading and language achievement scores were as high or higher than in the past. Mathematics scores were lower than in the past except for 1973. Recommendations for future research were given.

The purpose of this study was to examine the test performance of five randomly selected groups of 1978 students on five different versions of the Stanford Achievement Test. Three types of comparisons were made. First, the test scores of the five groups of 1978 students in grade 8.1 were compared with each other on the 1929, 1940, 1952, 1964, and 1973 Stanford Achievement Tests. Second, the test scores of each 1978 test group were compared with the test scores of the 8.1 normlng group for each test. Last, the test scores of 1978 students were compared with the test scores of students of the same age in the normlng groups for the five different tests. A total of 236 subjects from one middle school in Upper East Tennessee was used. The 236 subjects were randomly assigned to five groups. The five groups were randomly paired with the five different Stanford Achievement Tests and were tested under the same testing conditions. A computer comparison of the past achievement of the five 1978 test groups proved the groups equal in ability at the time of testing. In making the comparisons, it was found that students in the 1978 test groups were not achieving less than students in the past in all subjects. Reading and language achievement scores were as high or higher than in the past. Mathematics scores were lower than in the past except for 1973. Recommendations for future research were given.

The problem was to determine whether significant relationships exist in the attitudes of eighth-grade teachers, their principals, and their superintendents toward minimum competency testing in Tennessee. Literature was reviewed in order to determine the problems associated with the implementation of a minimum competency testing program. Questionnaires were developed to obtain the attitudes of teachers, principals, and superintendents about the questions most often encountered in the literature. School systems to be surveyed were selected by stratified random sampling from defined pupil enrollment categories after the questionnaires were field tested. Superintendents from 36 public school systems were identified to receive questionnaires and they each selected three eighth-grade teachers and three principals to complete questionnaires as well. Respondents were to have direct knowledge of the administration of the 1979 eighth-grade diagnostic basic skills test (a minimum competency test). Questionnaires were designed to obtain demographic data about the systems or schools represented by the respondents, personal data about the respondents, and attitudinal data on 17 items with responses to be ranked in order of priority by the respondents. A total of 100 questionnaires were received by the cut-off date, and these represented a 40% return. Personal data and demographic data were reported in tables. Nonparametrlc statistics were utilized to analyze the degree of relationship among the ordinal level data obtained from Items A-Q on the questionnaires. Agreement was tested intra-groups by Kendall's coefficient of concordance, and agreement between groups was tested by the Spearman rank-order correlation. The .05 level of significance was applied in all cases using the two-tailed test. Results of the data analyses indicated that agreement was more often significant within groups than between groups. Within groups (eighth-grade teachers, principals, and superintendents), a significant relationship was obtained for all 17 attitudinal items on the questionnaires for teachers and for principals, and for all items except H for superintendents. In the between-group analyses for first, second, and third priority responses, teachers and principals displayed greater agreement of rankings on each item than did teachers and superintendents, or than principals and superintendents displayed. Teachers and principals agreed significantly on 88%. of the items for first priority responses, 71% of the items for second priority responses, and 47% of the items for third priority responses. Teachers and superintendents agreed significantly on 65%, 47%, and 29% of the items for first, second, and third priorities. Principals and superintendents indicated significant agreement on 59%, 41%, and 35% of the items for first, second, and third priorities. Very few differences were noted between groups in the responses most often reported for first, second, and third priorities. Frequently, the same three responses were chosen as first, second, or third priority for each item by the three groups, but in a slightly different order by the different groups. Analysis of rankings beyond third priority was not conducted due to the great number of tied rankings after the third priority. Analysis of the demographic data revealed that most respondents represented students other than urban, upper-class youngsters and schools without a large percentage of minority students. Answers to general questions about the administration procedures for the 1979 basic skills test indicated that most systems administered the test in a comparable manner. Most respondents were between the ages of 20 and 49, and 71% of them had attained a Master's degree or above. Teaching certification was held by 81% of the respondents, and administrative certification by 57%. Teaching experience of 1-15 years was reported by 76% of the respondents and administrative experience of 1-15 years by 47%. Supervisory certification and experience were negligible.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this research was to determine if there was a relationship between collective teacher efficacy and student achievement and if collective teacher efficacy made an independent contribution in explaining student achievement beyond socioeconomic status. The conceptual basis for this study was Bandura's theory of self-efficacy.;Relationships between collective teacher efficacy and student achievement on the Virginia grade 8 math, writing, and English Standards of Learning (SOL) tests were found to be significant. The relationship between collective teacher efficacy and student achievement on the grade 8 writing SOL test made an independent contribution when controlling for socioeconomic status. However, the relationship between collective teacher efficacy and student achievement on the grade 8 math and English test did not make an independent contribution when socioeconomic status was controlled. This study contributes to other research findings indicating a positive relationship between collective teacher efficacy and student achievement.

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct and predictive validity of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI). The LASSI is an instrument designed to assess utilization of learning and study strategies and methods for the purpose of measuring strategy use, diagnosing deficiencies, and prescribing intervention. The literature suggests that valid instruments of this type are sadly lacking. The LASSI User's Manual, however, presents no statistical evidence of instrument validity. The need for this verification became crucial with The College of William and Mary's selection of the inventory for administration to the 1990 freshman class. Using data obtained from this administration and a subsequent retest, statistical analyses were conducted to confirm instrument reliability and examine construct and predictive validity. Results indicated that while reliable, the ten LASSI scales possessed no construct validity, as measured by factor analysis, and low predictive validity when first semester college grade point average was the performance criterion. Until the completion of further research, the validity of the LASSI is at best suspect, and use of the instrument is not recommended.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a difference in achievement scores and pass rates on Virginia's Literacy Passport Test between students who volunteered for and received additional instruction, students who volunteered for but did not receive the instruction, and students who neither volunteered for nor received interventional instruction in a program for rising sixth graders identified as potentially at-risk of initially failing the LPT.;It was hypothesized that (1) volunteers' scores of those who attended the summer program would show higher achievement and pass rates than either the scores of the volunteers without additional instruction and non-volunteers and (2) volunteer scores and pass rates of students who had not entered the five week program but expressed a desire to do so would show higher achievement than the non-volunteers.;Students' LPT scores were measured and analyzed. Those who received treatment did not produce mean scores nor pass rates significantly higher than those who did not receive treatment.;Further study is needed to determine whether summer intervention programs are effective for those students who have taken the LPT and have failed any portion of it.