Next, Theodore Marchese, of the American Association for Higher
Education, sets the concern for basic academic skills develop-
ment in the larger context of the assessment and education reform
movements.

We end Part One with an edited transcript of the panel discussion
that closed the NES conference last spring. Wilhelmina Delco,
William Sanford, Pamela Tackett (of the Texa s Education Agency),
and William Hardesty (former president of Southwest Texas State
University) were the panelists.

In Part Two, "Components of the Texas Approach," we reproduce
several documents that pre-dated or resulted from the TASP. They
include the 1986 report of the Committee on Testing of the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board; the legislation that led to the
creation of the TASP; rules and regulations recently adopted by the
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; a TASP Test program
summary; a document listing the skills on which the TASP Test will
be based; the bias-prevention manual used by those involved in test
development; and the registration bulletin to be used by students
planning to take the TASP Test.

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