The researcher, who pretests a questionnaire conventionally, is confident that a small number of interviews reveals numerous problems afflict the questionnaire. The standardized interviewer is asked to observe respondent's verbal behaviors in order to realize whether respondent misunderstands question. But this strategy fails when respondent does…

Retrospective pretests ask respondents to report after an intervention on their aptitudes, knowledge, or beliefs before the intervention. A primary reason to administer a retrospective pretest is that in some situations, program participants may over the course of an intervention revise or recalibrate their prior understanding of program content,…

Examines two common errors in evaluation and ways to circumvent them. The first error is faulty pretesting or diagnostic evaluation. The second is failure to monitor student progress and plan instruction in relation to the specified learning goals. (SJL)

The biasing effects of a pretest on subsequent post-test results were investigated in two experimental studies. In general, the results argue for using designs without pretests. (Author/JKS)

The effects of student teaching and the pretesting of attitudes on student teachers' attitudes were studied. Results suggested that pretesting of attitudes was detrimental to attitude improvement. Appropriate designs for assessing changes in attitudes were discussed. (Author/MH)

The role of standardized tests in American education is being challenged as many feel that they are unfair and actually reinforce and legitimize existing inequalities. The Educational Testing Service, the SAT, meritocracy, test coaching, and economic bias are discussed. (MLW)