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A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n
Appendix E: Resources and References |
Office for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Education
Minority Students and Special Education: Legal Approaches for Investigation (1995). Provides an overview of the legal theories and approaches employed in OCR investigations examining disproportionate representation of minority students in special education.
Policy Update on Schools? Obligations Toward National Origin Minority Students With Limited-English Proficiency (1991).
Used by OCR staff to determine schools? compliance with their Title VI obligation to provide any alternative language programs necessary to ensure that national-origin-minority students with limited English proficiency have meaningful access to programs. Provides additional guidance for the December 1985 and May 1970 memoranda.
The Office for Civil Rights? Title VI Language-Minority Compliance Procedures (1985).
Focuses on the treatment of limited English proficient students in programs that received funds from the Department.
Identification of Discrimination and Denial of Services on the Basis of National Origin (May 1970) 35 Fed. Reg. 11595.
Clarifies school district responsibilities to limited English proficient students. Memo was the foundation for the U.S. Supreme Court decision Lau v. Nichols and was affirmed in that decision.
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
U.S. Department of Education
Peer Reviewer Guidance for Evaluating Evidence of Final Assessments Under Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (1999).
Informs the states about types of evidence that would be useful in determining the evaluation of assessments under Title 1.
Taking Responsibility for Ending Social Promotion (1999).
Provides strategies for preventing academic failure and gives information about how these strategies can be sustained through ongoing support for improvement.
Handbook for the Development of Performance Standards: Meeting the Requirements of Title 1 with Council of Chief State School Officers) (1998).
Describes the best practices and current research on the development of academic performance standards for K-12.
Standards, Assessments and Accountability (1997).
Overview of the major provisions under Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
National Research Council
National Academy Press, Washington D.C.
High Stakes: Testing for Tracking, Promotion and Graduation (Jay P. Heubert & Robert M. Hauser eds., 1999).
Discusses how tests should be planned, designed, implemented, reported and used for a variety of educational policy goals. Focuses on the uses of tests that make high-stake decisions about individuals and on how to ensure appropriate test use.
Myths and Tradeoffs: The Role of Tests in Undergraduate Admissions (Alexandra Beatty, M.R.C. Greenwood & Robert L. Linn eds., 1999).
Four recommendations regarding test use for admission are made to colleges and universities, including a warning to schools to avoid using scores as more precise and accurate measures of college readiness than they are. One recommendation is made to test producers, which is to make clear the limitations of the information that the scores provide.
Testing, Teaching and Learning: A Guide for States and School Districts ( Richard F. Elmore & Robert Rothman eds., 1999).
Practical guide to assist states and school districts in developing challenging standards for student performance and assessment as specified by Title I. Discusses standards-based reform and specifies components of an education improvement system, which are standards, assessments, accountability and monitoring the conditions of instruction.
Improving America?s Schooling for Language Minority Children: A Research Agenda (Diane August & Kenji Hakuta eds., 1997).
Summary of the schooling and assessment of extensive study of limited English proficient students. Gives state of knowledge review and identifies research agenda for future study. Includes discussion of student assessment and program evaluation.
Educating One and All: Students with Disabilities and Standards-Based Reform (Lorraine M. McDonnell, Margaret J. McLaughlin & and Patricia Morison eds., 1997).
Twelve recommendations are given regarding how to integrate students with disabilities in standards-based reform, including: participation of students with disabilities should be maximized; that any test alterations must be individualized and have a compelling educational justification; include these students? test results in any accountability system; ensure opportunity for students with disabilities to learn the material tested; and use the IEP process for decision-making on the participation of individual students. Recommendations for policy-makers include: revising policies that discourage the inclusion of students with disabilities in high-stake tests; giving parents enough information to make informed choices about participation; monitoring possible unanticipated consequences of participation, both for standardized testing and for students with disabilities; designing realistic standards; and designing a long-term research agenda.
The Use of I.Q. Tests in Special Education Decision-Making and Planning: Summary of Two Workshops (Patricia Morison, S.H. White & Michael J. Feuer eds., 1996).
Report provides a synthesis of the key themes and ideas discussed at workshops, including: an overview of legal, policy and measurement issues in use of I.Q. tests in special education; validity and fairness of I.Q. testing for student classification and placement; alternative assessment methods used in combination with or as substitutes for I.Q. tests.
Responsible Test Use: Case Studies for Assessing Human Behavior (Lorraine D. Hyde, Gary J. Robertson & Samuel E. Krug, et al., eds., 1993).
Casebook for professionals using educational and psychological test data, which was developed to apply principles to proper test interpretation and actual test use. Cases are organized under eight sections: general training, professional responsibility training, test selection, test administration, test scoring and norms, test interpretation, reporting to clients and administrative or organization policy issues.
Test Measurement Standards
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association & National Council on Measurement in Education, Standards of Educational and Psychological Testing (1999).
Provides criteria for the evaluation of tests, testing practices, and the effects of test use. Begins with discussion of the test development process, which focuses on test developers, and moves to specific test uses and applications, which focus on test users. One chapter centers on test takers.
National Council on Measurement in Education, Code of Professional Responsibilities in Educational Measurement (1995).
Association for Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, Responsibilities of Users of Standardized Tests (1992).
Joint Committee on Testing Practices, Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education (1988).
Measurement Texts
Educational Measurement (Robert L. Linn, ed., 3rd ed. 1989).
Includes 11 chapters, including Messick?s classic chapter on validity, and organizes them in two parts: theory and general principles; and construction, administration and scoring.
Samuel Messick, Validity of Psychological Assessment: Validation of Inferences from Persons? Responses and Performances as Scientific Inquiry into Score Meaning, American Psychologist 50(9) (September 1995).
Gives a new cohesive definition of validity that looks at score meaning and social values. Six perspectives of construct validity are defined: content, substantive, structural, generalizability, external and consequential.
Martha Thurlow, Judy Elliott & Jim Ysseldyke, Testing Students With Disabilities (1998).
This document provides guidance about how students with disabilities should be included in large-scale tests, considerations about how to select the appropriate accommodations for which students, and discussions about the role of state and local educators in ensuring proper test use, the use of alternate tests, and appropriate reporting considerations.
Rebecca J. Kopriva, Council of Chief State School Officers, Ensuring Accuracy in Testing for English Language Learners (2000).
This resource provides guidance to states, districts, and test publishers about developing, selecting, or adapting large-scale, standardized assessments of educational achievement that are appropriate and valid for English language learners. The guide?s practical recommendations identify the ?who, what, when, why and how? associated with developing, selecting, or adapting tests for institution use, including how to select the appropriate accommodations for which students, how to collect appropriate validity evidence, and a discussion of salient reporting considerations.
Test Publisher Materials
Most test publishers produce materials that explain the appropriate use of their tests. We encourage interested readers to obtain these materials from the publishers of the tests they administer or from publishers of tests in which they are interested. Readers can also contact the Association of Test Publishers, 655 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20005, telephone 202-857-8444 for more information.
Other Resources
There are many books and other materials that might be helpful to educators and policy-makers as they develop policies, and design and implement programs which include the use of tests in making high-stakes decisions for students. The following web sites will provide additional information and links to some of these resources.
Council for Chief State School Officers
http://www.CCSSO.org
The National Center on Education Outcomes
http://www.coled.umn.edu/NCEO
Center for Evaluation, Research, Standards and Student Testing
http://www.cse.ucla.edu/
National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education
http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu
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