Abstract:
The Comprehensive Assessment Program Achievement Series is a set of achievement tests for students from pre-kindergarten through the twelfth grade. For pre-school through first grade. Levels 4, 5, and 6 (Beginning Education Assessment) of the Achievement Series measures those skills that lead to reading, mathematics, and language development. Levels 7-12 are for students in grades two through nine, and provide continuous measurement in the areas of reading, mathematics, language, and study skills. For high school students, Levels 13 and 14 also contain measures of reading, language, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies. For Levels 5-8, either machine-scorable or hand-scorable booklets may be used. Levels 9-14 have reusable booklets that are used with machine-scorable answer sheets. Scores are expressed as grade equivalents, normal curve equivalents, standard deviations, and quartiles, and are reported in various ways for the convenience of parents, teachers, and administrators. Tests at the lower levels have no time limits, but Levels 7-14 take from 2.5 to 3.5 hours to administer. Test questions are multiple choice and usually include four response options. Several additional tests are part of the Series; The Minimum Essentials Test assesses the basic skills of reading, language, mathematics, and writing skills for students in grades 8-12 as well as for adults through the use of "life situation" items. For grades 2-12, the Developing Cognitive Abilities Test measures students' learning characteristics (based on Bloom's taxonomy) and abilities that contribute to academic performance. The three levels of the School Attitude Measure are for grades 4-12 and assess students' concepts of themselves as students. The Achievement Improvement Monitors are criterion-referenced tests used in conjunction with instruction to measure mastery of specific skills. The norm- and criterion-referenced High School Subject Tests are end-of-course exams for fifteen commonly-taught subjects. Students in grades 2-12 with special learning problems can be assessed with the Diagnostic Protocols in Reading, Language, and Mathematics. Information about reliability, validity, and test development is not a part of the EAC East collection.