Black and Hispanic students are undeniably underidentified as gifted and underrepresented in gifted education. The underrepresentation of the two largest groups of "minority" students is long-standing, dating several decades, and is a serious area of contention. Most debates focus on the efficacy of traditional intelligence tests with…

Reviews commercially available instruments to assess students' study skills/habits/behavior, finding that none completely meets the standards set by the American Psychological Association or the American Educational Research Association. Offers guidance on selecting and applying these instruments in college settings. (DMM)

Examines and contests the claim that all language tests are in reality testing the same underlying ability which is very similar to the Spearman g-factor for intelligence. Conclusions indicate that the argument for the existence of a g-factor in language tests is not tenable on statistical grounds. (SL)

Criterion-referenced evaluation (CRE) describes achievement in performance terms, whereas norm-referenced evaluation (NRE) compares the performance of one individual to that of others with respect to a given evaluation instrument. Vocational educators who base their programs on behaviorism commonly evaluate student performance from a CRE…

Argues that individual and group differences in priming performance scores are heavily influenced by overall speed and accuracy, and thus are a flawed reflection of internal activation of semantic priming. Suggests that meaningful comparison of groups on the activation underlying priming difference scores requires removing the effects of overall…

Compares the features, learning outcomes tested, reliability, viability, and cost effectiveness of essay tests with those of interpretive tests used in training programs. A case study illustrating how an essay test was converted to an interpretive test and pilot tested is included to illustrate the advantages of interpretive testing. (MBR)

Contends that erroneous conclusions concerning intraindividual strengths may result when comparing scaled scores on subtests of The Test of Reading Comprehension. Examination of scaled scores may seem to indicate that a given student has performed better on one subtest than on another when the difference between the two scores is not statistically…

There are four reasons why comparative data is needed for student ratings of faculty performance: (1) the considerable inflation of student ratings; (2) the great variability in the way students rate different items; (3) because student rating systems must be flexible and comparable; and (4) because of factors (such as student motivation, class…

Presents major stages in design and development of criterion referenced tests (CRT) with emphasis on differences between CRT construction and norm-referenced test construction. Discussion covers test interpretation; test theory; preparation for test construction (hierarchical analysis, item type selection, and choosing number of items); test…

Argues in defense of Rubin's CCAI, that Powell and Avila's study did not use adequate controls to assess the instrument's reliability. Asserts that their study simply discovered differences in communication competence among ethnic groups. (MS)