Biology instructors use concept assessments in their courses to gauge student understanding of important disciplinary ideas. Instructors can choose to administer concept assessments based on participation (i.e., lower stakes) or the correctness of responses (i.e., higher stakes), and students can complete the assessment in an in-class or…

Online higher education institutions are presented with the concern of how to obtain valid results when administering student learning outcomes (SLO) assessments remotely. Traditionally, there has been a great reliance on unproctored Internet test administration (UIT) due to increased flexibility and reduced costs; however, a number of validity…

This article reports the findings of a study that sought to investigate whether computer-based vs. paper-based test-delivery mode has an impact on the reliability and validity of an achievement test for a pedagogical content knowledge course in an English teacher education program. A total of 97 university students enrolled in the English as a…

As part of the Race to the Top initiative, the United States Department of Education made nearly 1 billion dollars available in State Educational Technology grants with the goal of ramping up school technology. One result of this effort is that states, districts, and schools across the country are using computerized assessments to measure their…

This article explores the use of standardized tests to hold schools accountable. The history of testing for accountability is reviewed, and it is shown that currently between-school differences account for less than 10% of the variance in student scores, in part because the progress of individuals is small compared to the spread of achievement…

The study discussed the importance of test validity, often established when making decisions that may affect a student's future. The decisions made by policymakers and educators must not adversely affect any particular subgroups of students (i.e., year of administration, gender, ethnicity, level English proficiency, socioeconomic status, and…

Demands for accountability have seen the implementation of large scale testing programs in Australia and internationally. There is, however, a growing body of evidence to show that externally imposed testing programs do not have a sustained impact on student achievement. It has been argued that teacher assessment is more effective in raising…

The Guidelines for Good Practice of the European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA) stress the importance of collaboration between all parties involved in the process of developing instruments, activities and programmes for testing and assessment. Collaboration is considered to be as important as validity and reliability,…

The effects of gathering test scores under low-stakes conditions has been a prominent domain of research in the assessment and testing literature. One important area within this larger domain concerns the implications of a test being low-stakes on test evaluation and development. The current study examined one variable, the testing context, that…

Three Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory short forms, the Mini-Mult, Faschingbauer's 166, and the MMPI-168, which were constructed by different methodologies, were compared on a sample of 1,028 psychiatric patients. Results of this study seriously question the use of MMPI short forms for clinical interpretation. (Author)

Within the context of a counterbalanced design, 63 female students were tested with a computerized Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and a group booklet mode of administration. State anxiety was measured before and after each testing session. The correlation between the computer-based MMPI scale scores and the booklet…

Directions are provided for the construction of a reduced size Rod and Frame Test. Simpler and less expensive, the proposed apparatus has criterion validity parallel to that of the full-sized. (GS)

Forty elementary students were administered the Bender-Gestalt Test using two techniques: Koppitz routine instructions and the Hutt testing-the-limits method. The mean number of Koppitz errors was approximately two greater than the number obtained using the Hutt technique. (Author/BW)

Evaluated the ability of the Wonderlic Personnel Test to replicate the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) with (N=120) normal persons divided into principal and cross-validation groups. Correlations between the Wonderlic IQs and the WAIS Full Scale IQs were .93 for the main group and .91 for the cross-validation group. (Author)

Although instructional methods are moving in ever greater number to a multimedia base, testing is not. What principles should be considered in correcting this misalignment?