http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/423682352

Achievement Test Score Decline: Do We Need to Worry?

Through the nineteen-forties, fifties, and up to the mid-sixties, achievement test scores steadily increased. Since then, many test scores drop. The reported test score declines are more dramatic in recent years and most evident for higher grades. They are specially pronounced in verbal tests, but hold for nearly all tested areas. Specially: Scholastic Aptitude Test (sat), American College Testing Program (act), Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (psat), Minnesota Scholastic Aptitude Test (msat), Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ited), Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (itbs), Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (ctbs), National Assessment of Educational Progress (naep), and Stanford-Binet. All the available data is exhibited and where possible, the artificiality or meaningfulness of the manifest changes are assessed. To do this, it was necessary to analyze the achievement assessment means, I.E. (standardized) tests. This assessment includes possible compositional changes in tested groups as well as systematic biases resulting from changes in the tests themselves or the quantification of their outcomes. Beyond testing, the areas relevant for potentially fixing probable responsibilities for test score declines span a child's entire socializing and educating environment. Grossly, the child's world is partitioned into in-and out-of-school conditions and experiences. Potential explanations are offered and discussed in each area. The evidence is then summarized and evaluated, pointing to recommendations for action. (Rc) Aspect of National Assessment (naep) dealt with in this document: Results (Overview).

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