A pilot study was conducted on test item ambiguity in standardized tests. A group of second and third grade children were selected and given a random sample of items from four standardized test series. Items were drawn from the reading, science and social studies subtests and put together in a composite reading comprehension, science, and social…

The concurrent and postdictive validity of two newly-devised tests of contrasting hemispheric function (Test of Right Hemisphere Ability, Test of Left Hemisphere Ability) was investigated relative to scores earned on the reading and mathematics portions of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills. (Author/PN)

Forty-two fourth- and fifth-grade teachers rated their 1,032 students in the five curricular subjects: reading, mathematics, language arts, science, and social science. The teachers' ratings substantially agreed with students' scores on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, indicating the concurrent validity of standardized achievement tests.…

This investigation attempts to determine if the congruity in textbook-test content varies as a function of different styles of textbook use. Across all standardized tests, instructional validity of the five styles of textbook use was far lower for the management-by-objectives model than for any other styles. (Author/PN)

A panel of expert referees from the Philadelphia school district categorized items from secondary-level standardized mathematics tests according to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) subobjectives for mathematics. The following tests were covered by the study: (1) California Achievement Tests (Levels 19 and 20); (2) Comprehensive…

Standardized achievement tests and instructional accomplishment inventories involve different methodologies and cannot be equated by using conventional psychometric methods. Instructional accomplishment inventories are descriptive, and are designed to reflect the scope, sequence, and skills and emphasis in a particular instructional program.…

One means of establishing the validity of performance-based assessments is to determine whether the criteria for basic competencies on performance tests are reasonable in relation to expected (nationally normed) age-level performance. Links between performances on three assessments in Michigan and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills illustrate…

The authors argue that personnel who select standardized achievement tests have been led to believe that the major achievement test batteries differ very little in terms of the topics they test; but that the content covered by these major tests is different, and that such differences have consequences for instructional content. To test this…

To help teachers in comparing the content of their instruction with the content of standardized tests, a taxonomy of elementary school mathematics was developed. The taxonomy consisted of matrix with three dimensions; (1) mode of presentation (how questions are asked); (2) nature of material (type of numbers or mathematical terms); and (3)…

The validity of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) and problems associated with inappropriate norms were investigated in eleven senior high schools in Phoenix, Arizona. CTBS validity was assessed in three ways: (1) correlation between test scores and number of courses taken in that subject; (2) correlation between CTBS scores and…

The ability to correctly answer reading comprehension test items, without having read the accompanying reading passage, was compared for third grade learning disabled students and their peers from a regular classroom. In the first experiment, fourteen multiple choice items were selected from the Stanford Achievement Test. No reading passages were…

An assessment of the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) City-Wide Testing Program is presented to determine the effects of using customized achievement tests to achieve multiple purposes. The tests are derived from, or related to, the tests in a nationally standardized test battery, but include items written specifically to measure the local curriculum.…