Coursebook evaluation helps practitioners decide on the most appropriate coursebook to be exploited. Moreover, evaluation process enables to predict the potential strengths and weaknesses of a given coursebook. Checklist method is probably the most widely adopted way of judging coursebooks and there are plenty of ELT coursebook evaluation…

Two approaches to criterion-referenced measurement are described and contrasted--domain-referenced testing and mastery testing. This paper is organized according to ten issues or stages in test construction: (1) content domain specification; (2) item construction; (3) item domain specification; (4) item analysis; (5) item selection; (6) parallel…

Summarizes some prevailing policies and practices important to the assessment of mental retardation in Australia, France, the United States, and Zimbabwe. Discusses international standards for diagnosis and classification of mental disorders and cross-national similarities and differences. Also discusses implications for test development. (SLD)

Results of 96 theoretical/empirical studies were reviewed to see if they support a taxonomy of 43 rules for writing multiple-choice test items. The taxonomy is the result of an analysis of 46 textbooks dealing with multiple-choice item writing. For nearly half of the rules, no research was found. (SLD)

Information useful for the identification of child abusers was developed. Data initially collected provided feedback concerning the characteristics and attitudes of child abusers. An MMPI profile analysis was conducted in the second phase of the study. While 10 of the 15 subjects had one or more scale scores above T-70, the average group profile…

The taxonomy of test wiseness constructed by Millman and others is discussed. Other aspects of test wiseness are reviewed, such as additional influencing factors, manifestations, theoretical approaches, correlates, measures, and methods of minimizing its effects. (MH)

Urban schools are challenged to improve teacher retention and quality. Unfortunately, research on effective teaching and attributes of effective teachers rarely has considered urban contextual influences. The purposes of the current study were (a) to develop and validate an instrument for evaluating urban teacher attributes and (b) to determine…

Recent advances in theory and research provide a basis for defining higher-order thinking skills and for designing tests of such skills. (MCG)

Focuses on the performance levels of the Test of English for Educational Purposes (TEEP) and English Language Testing Service (ELTS) tests. It is concluded that more attention should be paid to the process underlying test performance. (15 references) (GLR)

Examines traditional psychometric approaches to measuring intelligence and recent work by cognitive psychologists to develop a rationale for a non-verbal reasoning test for 10- to 11-year-olds. Recent studies providing basis for analyzing structure of test items are outlined, and benefits of analyzing items at a sub-type level are discussed.…

A review of the literature on a variety of issues related to testing vocabulary knowledge in a second language addresses these topics: problems in estimating vocabulary size, including the related questions of what constitutes a word, how a sample should be selected, and what are the criteria for knowing a word; sampling the basic and specialized…