ABSTRACT
Assessment provides indicators of educational success for a variety of purposes and audiences. The purposes include individual student evaluation, curriculum evaluation, and national assessment. The audiences include the individuals who are assessed, curriculum developers, educators charged with planning and decision making, and the public. In general, for reasons of efficiency and cost, most standardized examinations consist entirely of multiple-choice questions. Because scores on these examinations affect perceptions of individual and school success, attention is given toward preparing students to do well on them. Increasingly, standardized tests are being criticized for failing to provide an appropriate instructional target (Shavelson, 1990).
