Discusses, for the benefit of research workers and other test users, the ongoing controversy concerning the relative merits of conventional test theory and Rasch scaling in the construction of reading tests. Concludes that a great deal of further research is required to see whether these approaches are educationally valid. (JD)

In conjunction with testing mandates, some states have developed new measures intended to reflect changes in thinking about reading. Discusses, in dialogue form, whether these new measures support educational improvement or limit them. (BJV)

A behavioral domain is well-defined when it is clear to both test developers and test users which categories of performance should or should not be considered for potential test items. Only those tests that are keyed to well-defined domains meet the definition of criterion-referenced tests. The greatest proliferation of criterion-referenced tests…

Concludes that IRIs can be useful, flexible assessment and instruction tools in the hands of knowledgeable teachers. Offers suggestions for their use. (FL)

Although informal reading inventories are widely used, they are not without their shortcomings, regardless of whether they have been published commercially or have been constructed by the teacher. There are at least two significant weaknesses in inventories developed by the teacher: (1) passages selected randomly from the graded basal readers that…

A study compared the performance of 44 applicants seeking admission to an alternative high school (n=19) and nursing assistant program (n=25) at a Wisconsin postsecondary institution on the Assessment of Student Skills for Entry Transfer (ASSET) test and the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. (Applicants who did not achieve a minimum score on ASSET then…