Instructional Sensitivity of a State's Standards-Based Assessment

Abstract

The accuracy of achievement test score inferences largely depends on the sensitivity of scores to instruction focused on tested objectives. Sensitivity requirements are particularly challenging for standards-based assessments because a variety of plausible instructional differences across classrooms must be detected. For this study, we developed a new method for capturing the alignment between how teachers bring standards to life in their classrooms and how the standards are defined on a test. Teachers were asked to report the degree to which they emphasized the state's academic standards, and to describe how they taught certain objectives from the standards. Two curriculum experts judged the alignment between how teachers brought the objectives to life in their classrooms and how the objectives were operationalized on the state test. Emphasis alone did not account for achievement differences among classrooms. The best predictors of classroom achievement were the match between how the standards were taught and tested, and the interaction between emphasis and match, indicating that test scores were sensitive to instruction of the standards, but in a narrow sense.     

High School Exit Exam Scores and University Performance

Many U.S. students must pass a standards-based exit exam to earn a high school diploma. The degree to which exit exams and state standards properly signal to students their preparedness for postsecondary schooling has been questioned. The alignment of test scores with college grades for students at the University of Arizona (n = 2,667) who took the Arizona high school exams was ascertained in this study. The pass/fail signal accuracy of test scores varied depending on subject: The writing cut score was well aligned with collegiate performance, the reading cut score was below expectations, and the mathematics cut score was set quite rigorously. High school content and performance standards might not be as diluted as prior research has suggested.     

Research Methods

Klaus Krippendorf, CONTENT ANALYSIS: AN INTRODUCTION TO ITS METHODOLOGY (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1980---$16.00/$7.95)

Karl Erik Rosegren, ADVANCES IN CONTENT ANALYSIS (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1981---$25.00/$12.50)

Nick L. Smith, COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN EVALUATION: NEW PERSPECTIVES IN EVAUATION, VOLUME 3 (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1982---$22.50)

Jerome Johnston and James Ettema, POSITIVE IMAGES: BREAKING STEREOTYPES WITH CHILDREN'S TELEVISION (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1982---$22.95/$10.95)     

Law and Regulation

THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF LAW by M. Ethan Katsh (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989—$38.00, ISBN 0-19-504590-4)

COPYRIGHT LAW: A PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE and 1989 SUPPLEMENT by Harry G. Henn (Practising Law Institute, 810 Seventh Ave, New York, NY 10019—$85.00 for both, ISBN not provided)

USING COPYRIGHTED VIDEOCASSETTES IN CLASSROOMS, LIBRARIES, AND TRAINING CENTERS by Jerome K. Miller (1988,2nd ed.—$19.95, ISBN 0-914143-14-X)

A COPYRIGHT PRIMER FOR EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL MEDIA PRODUCERS by Esther Sinofsky (1988—$29.95, ISBN 0-914143-12-3)

VIDEO COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS: A GUIDE TO SECURING PERMISSION TO RETAIN, PERFORM, AND TRANSMIT TELEVISION PROGRAMS VIDEOTAPED OFF THE AIR by Jerome K. Miller and others (1989—price not given, ISBN 0-914143-13-1)

PRIVATE RIGHTS, PUBLIC WRONGS: THE COMPUTER AND PERSONAL PRIVACY by Michael Rogers Rubin (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1988—$32.50, ISBN 0-89391-518-1)

SUBJECTS IN PHOTOGRAPHS, FILM AND TELEVISION edited by Larry Gross, John Stuart Katz, and Jay Ruby (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988—$29.95, ISBN 0- 19-505433-4)

COMPENSATING CREATORS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: COLLECTIVES THAT COLLECT by Stanley M. Besen and Sheila Nataraj Kirby (Rand Corporation, 1700 Main St., PO Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90406—price not given, paper, ISBN 0-8330-0967-2)     

Media Policy

FCC: THE UPS AND DOWNS OF RADIO-TV REGULATION by William B. Ray (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1989—$24.95, ISBN 0-8138-0227-X, 214 pp.)

ACTUAL MALICE: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER TIMES v. SULLIVAN by W. Wat Hopkins (New York: Praeger, 1989—$39.95, ISBN 0-275-93246-X, 226 pp.)

CASES AND MATERIALS ON MASS MEDIA LAW by Marc A. Franklin and David A. Anderson (Westbury, NY: Foundation Press, 1990 price not given, ISBN 0-88277-778-5, 951 pp.)

MASS COMMUNICATION LAW: CASES AND COMMENT by Donald Gill mor, Jerome Barron.Todd Simon and Herbert Terry (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1990 $52.00, ISBN 0-314-56267-2, 947 pp.)

THE COPYRIGHT BOOK: A PRACTICAL GUIDE by William S. Strong (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990 $17.95, ISBN 0-262-19292-6, 249 pp.)

SOCIAL RESEARCH IN COMMUNICATION AND LAW by Jeremy Cohen and Timothy Gleason (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1990—$9.95, paper, ISBN 0-8039-3267-7, 140 pp.)     

Science education and teachers: A Karplus lecture

This speech is devoted to science education reform and the pivotal role of the science teacher in the process.This paper comprises a speech, the Karplus Lecture, given at the National Science Teachers Association annual meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, April 7 1990.