Assessments come in many forms in part because they serve many purposes, and those purposes often vary by the stakeholders they support. Students, parents, teachers, and school, district and state leaders may all be end users of the information provided by various assessments. This brief supports state leaders' understanding of assessments by…

This guide is designed to assist States, agencies, and/or facilities who work with youth who are neglected, delinquent, or at-risk (N or D). The information in the guide will benefit those who are (a) interested in implementing pre-posttests, (b) in the process of identifying an appropriate pre-posttest, or (c) ready to evaluate current testing…

Nine preschool and school-age language assessment tools found to have acceptable levels of identification accuracy were evaluated to determine their overall levels of psychometric validity for use in diagnosing the presence/absence of language impairment. Eleven specific criteria based on those initially devised by McCauley and Swisher (1984) were…

Discusses the necessity for the use of test score data in measuring school effectiveness. Outlines the types of tests best suited to particular schools. (MD)

Forty-six achievement tests were compared for content validity, criterion-related validity, reliability, and norms. Results show that more popular tests provide the user with technical data in the critical areas examined, although the information provided may be incomplete. (Author/MT)

The paper discusses some problems in using achievement tests with hearing impaired students and offers some general suggestions for school testing programs. (PHR)

Higher elementary student scores on standardized tests do not mean educational improvement. Scores can be affected by teaching "to" the test, coaching on test taking, and skewed norms. Test scores have been declining at the secondary level. Included is a discussion of secondary tests. (MD)

Finds the revised Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test an improvement over the original edition. (AEA)

This directory describes tests available for use by psychologists, educators and human resource personnel in businesses. Each of the three main sections is divided into subsections. Psychology contains 21 subsections; Education, 49 subsections; and Business, 20 subsections. The tests within each subsection are listed alphabetically by title. Each…

This manual sets forth comprehension guidelines and procedures for selecting instruments to measure educational growth, achievement, and outcomes. The necessary criteria are presented in a checklist format, permitting local district personnel to evaluate the worth of testing instruments before adoption. A subset of the criteria are defined as…

This publication identifies and examines existing assessment instruments in oral communication for K-12 and higher education, and abstracts and describes assessment instruments and systematically reports their availability and interest to scholars, teachers, and administrators. It also provides background research needed to develop oral…

Instruments used to measure creativity by 418 school districts as part of their identification procedures for gifted programs were studied. Results indicated that districts often select instruments for assessing creativity without attending to the definition of the construct. Creativity is often assessed in ways that may not be valid or reliable.…

Inspired by four recent decisions to change achievement tests used in the Austin Independent School District, the separate forms used and procedures followed have been combined into a systematic approach intended for use in future achievement test selections. A rating scale (Attachment 1) was developed to expedite a systematic comparison among…

This publication is an outgrowth of the concern expressed by the National Council of Teachers of English regarding the nature, uses, and misuses of standardized tests, specifically the validity of the subject-matter content of standardized English tests and the relation of the overall purposes of a school's total English program to standardized…

This is the third of three volumes designed to cover the problems and issues of developing and managing a formal assessment program. They also offer guidelines and illustrations of several of the more special aspects of assessment programs, such as administering tests or documenting their results. This volume contains summaries of technical…