The development, validation, and applicability of The Personnel Evaluation Standards

Michigan State UniversityAir Force Human Resources Laboratory     

The Globalisation of Assessment in the 20th Century

This paper describes the considerable increase in the 1990s in the number of countries involved in national and international assessments of the achievements of pupils in their education systems. While participation in international comparative studies is largely confined to industrialised countries, many developing countries have carried out national assessments in the last 10 years. Growth in the use of assessment at the system level in the context of factors associated with globalisation (e.g. a utilitarian view of education, the need to develop human capital, concern for performance/results and the use of standard procedures and advanced technology) is considered.     

The Utility of Third International Mathematics and Science Study Scales in Predicting Students' State Examination Performance

To examine the predictive utility of three scales provided in the released database of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (international plausible values, standardized percent correct score, and national Rasch score), information was obtained on the performance in state examinations in mathematics and science in 1996 (2,969 Grade 8 students) and in 1997 (2,898 Grade 7 students) of students in the Republic of Ireland who had participated in TIMSS in 1995. Performance on TIMSS was related to later performance in the state examinations using normal and nonparametric maximum likelihood (NPML) random effects models. In every case, standardized percent correct scores were found to be the best predictors of later performance, followed by national Rasch scores, and lastly, by international plausible values. The estimates for normal mixing distributions are close to those estimated by the NPML approach, lending support to the validity of estimates.     

IEA Studies and Educational Policy

IEA studies hold the promise of meeting governments’ needs to obtain information on how their educational system operates relative to other systems, which may help to identify deficiencies and strengths. In this paper, ways in which this information might influence policy and decision‐making are described and examples are provided of cases in which the findings of IEA studies have been reported to have influenced policy. Problems in interpreting and applying IEA findings are considered. Finally, nine conditions are outlined which international studies should meet if their findings are to satisfy the currently expressed needs of educational policy‐makers and decision‐makers.     

Method of Measurement and Gender Differences in Scholastic Achievement

Gender differences in scholastic achievement as a function of method of measurement were examined by comparing the performance of 15-year-old boys (N = 739) and girls (N = 758) in Irish schools on multiple-choice tests and free-response tests (requiring short written answers) of mathematics, Irish, and English achievement. Males performed significantly better than females on multiple-choice tests compared to their performance on free-response examinations. An expectation that the gender difference would be larger for the languages and smaller for mathematics because of the superior verbal skills attributed to females was not fulfilled.