Cultural intelligence is one's ability to adapt when confronted with problems arising in interactions with people or artifacts of diverse cultures. In this study, we conduct an initial construct-validation and assessment of a maximum-performance test of cultural intelligence. We assess the psychometric properties of the test and also correlate the…

This presentation was presented at the 2011 National Conference on Student Assessment (CCSSO). The focus of this presentation is how to validate the common core state standards (CCSS) in math and ELA and the subsequent assessments that will be developed by state consortia. The CCSS specify the skills students need to be ready for post-secondary…

Institutions of higher learning serve as a portal, through which opportunities for life, and potential for social evolution are intrinsically bound. The decision of who is allowed to pass through this portal is not only a defining moment for the individual student, but also a significant portent towards the fulfillment of social justice on which…

Test-taking strategies are important cognitive skills that strongly affect students' performance in tests. Using appropriate test-taking strategies improves students' achievement and grades, improves students' attitudes toward tests and reduces test anxiety. This results in improving test accuracy and validity. This study aimed at developing a…

This article describes the formulation and execution of the Rainbow Project, Phase I, funded by the College Board. Past data suggest that the SAT is a good predictor of performance in college. But in terms of the amount of variance explained by the SAT, there is room for improvement, as there would be for virtually any single test battery. Phase I…

The reliability and validity of E. D. Hirsch's (1988) Cultural Literacy Test (CLT) was studied with 150 first-year college students at the University of St. Thomas in Houston (Texas). The test appears reliable, with a split-half reliability estimate of 0.93, and the cultural literacy construct and the CLT are valid. (SLD)

This study was designed to address two frequent criticisms of the SAT essay--that essay length is the best predictor of scores, and that there is an advantage in using more "sophisticated" examples as opposed to personal experience. The study was based on 2,820 essays from the first three administrations of the new SAT. Each essay was…

It has been reasonably well established that test takers can sometimes answer correctly some reading comprehension passages without reading the passages on which the questions are based. This issue was studied with the new Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in a study designed to determine the strategies by which examinees are able to achieve…

The idea that validity should be considered a property of inferences, rather than of assessments, has developed slowly over the past century. In early writings about the validity of educational assessments, validity was defined as a property of an assessment. The most common definition was that an assessment was valid to the extent that it…

The construct validity of algebra word problems for measuring quantitative reasoning was examined, focusing on an analysis of problem attributes and on the analysis of constructed-response solutions. Constructed-response solutions to 20 problems from the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test were collected from 51 undergraduates.…

Presented at the Annual National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) in New York in March 2008. This presentation explores how different item weighting can affect the effective weights, validity coefficents and test reliability of composite scores among test takers.

This study investigated the comparability of SAT Verbal and Mathematical scores for nonhandicapped examinees taking standard administrations and handicapped populations taking extended-time, special administrations. Results showed the two common-factor model to provide a reasonable fit in all populations with the mathematical factor fitting…