Pencils Down! A Guide for Using and Reporting Test Results

Pencils Down! A Guide for Using and Reporting Test Results (Gucwa & Mastie, 1989) describes how to use results from the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) to help pinpoint each student's instructional needs, to review the school curriculum for strengths and deficiencies, and to plan instruction and set goals at the building level. This publication identifies four questions that an effective reporting plan must address:

Who needs or wants the information you have?
What information should be reported?
Why is the reporting being done, and what is the expected outcome?
How can the information best be transmitted to reach the intended audience(s)?

Pencils Down! also descrbes three different types of reports that are used for publicizing test results: the background report, the report of test results, and the follow-up report.

Although originally written to assist school districts that use and report statewide assessment results in Michigan, the publication contains suggestions that are equally applicable to more performance-based assessments and to assessments of an informal nature typical of the classroom.

The appendix includes a sample press release for communicating school assessment results to the public.

The entire Pencils Down! document.

References