This study sought to explore the relationship between attendance in public prekindergarten programs and school readiness skills using regression discontinuity methodology. A sample of 179 students entering prekindergarten and 67 students entering kindergarten who had completed prekindergarten the previous year was collected with parental consent…

Annual standardized testing lies at the heart of the accountability system that American education reformers and policymakers have established during the past decade in an effort to ensure equal opportunity for all students, no matter their race, ethnicity or wealth. The new testing regime has brought national attention to the schooling of…

Traditional measures of teachers' competency have been widely criticized for their lack of authenticity and predictive validity. There is little evidence regarding the technical soundness of traditional teacher licensure tests and little research documenting the validity of such tests for identifying competent teachers or effective teaching.…

In recent years, educational research and development has focused increased attention on ways of enhancing the instructional value of tests. This ERIC Digest summarizes some of the recent advances in linking instruction and assessment. Studies of teacher effectiveness indicate how important systematic assessment of student progress and use of test…

This study was an attempt to examine certain variables which apply to test-wiseness factors in assessing preschool and primary grade children. The study identified specific abilities which appear to be prerequisite for taking standardized tests, and to design curricular materials to facilitate the development of these abilities. It was found that…

Groups of approximately 300 undergraduate educational psychology students participated in an instructional program, involving weekly instructional objectives, weekly exams, remedial exams, and a point system of scoring. It was assumed that the percentage of students not attaining the passing criterion on the initial exam but returning for the…

The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the current changes in test development that are taking place because of the availability and capabilities of computers, especially microcomputers. Item banking and test assembly are discussed, and a comprehensive testing system is described. (BW)

With an increasing number of cases currently coming to the courts' attention to examine the conditions under which educational and psychological testing practices violate one's constitutional rights, this article considers the responses from school systems, professional organizations, the Federal Government, school psychologists, and the testing…

Several areas of controversy between Soviet pyschologists and their Western colleagues concerning the usefulness of tests for measurement of mental ability are noted in this article. The author outlines test procedures suggested by Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky. (SM)

Considers equity issues of highstakes tests conducted by computer, including whether this new form of assessment actually helps level the playing field for students or represents a new cycle of assessment inequality. Two computer tests are assessed: Praxis I: Academic Skills Assessment; and the computerized version of the Graduate Record…

The speeches presented at the second national conference on testing deal with models for program evaluation, reporting of test results, minimum competency programs, and the role of state and federal government in educational testing. Various approaches to program evaluation, and its relationship to testing are described by Michael Scriven, Lee J.…

The National Education Association's Task Force on Testing has stated its opinion that standardized tests are overused. The task force suggests that the application of sampling techniques and a variety of alternatives to current testing practices would accomplish the same purposes. Representatives of the testing industry have indicated that the…

This paper considers the question of bias in group administered academic achievement tests, bias which is inherent in the instruments themselves. A body of data on the test of performance of three disadvantaged minority groups--northern, urban black; southern, rural black; and, southwestern, Mexican-Americans--as tryout samples in contrast to…

Factor analysis attempts to study how different objects group together to form factors with the purposes of: (1) reducing the number of factorable entities (e.g., variables) with which the researcher needs to deal; (2) searching data for qualitative and quantitative differences; and (3) testing hypotheses (R. Gorsuch, 1983). While most factor…