Assessment refers to a broad array of approaches for measuring or evaluating a person's (or group of persons') skills, behaviors, dispositions, or other attributes. Assessments range from standardized tests used in admissions, employee selection, licensure examinations, and domestic and international largescale assessments of cognitive and…

Data are presented on the validity and reliability of a new form of employee honesty testing: "The Integrity Interview." Results indicated that this instrument was a reliable alternative to commonly used written measures, although further study is needed to establish normative data across different employee populations and settings.…

"Content validity" has been widely but unwisely hailed as a solution to many problems in employee selection. The author argues that sampling from content domains cannot logically be substituted for criterion related validity. He suggests that evaluations of scores be based on the principle of construct validation. (Editor/RK)

A study of 187 internists, evaluated by peers they recommended, found the highest rating was for integrity, and lowest was for psychosocial aspects of patient care. Peer raters' response rate and analysis of the ratings suggest this rating process is acceptable to physicians and that it is feasible to obtain reliable, multidimensional peer…

Traces the origins and development of the courts'"doctrine of subjective practices" in the evaluation of supervisory personnel, and discusses alternative remedies to the discriminatory use of subjective criteria in the selection and promotion of managerial employees. Available from Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Harvard…

Describes the development of a behaviorally based performance appraisal system for assessing the performance of highway patrol personnel. The items in the present scale were developed to describe proficiency levels of specific job tasks. This characteristic is expected to enhance the objectivity of the evaluation system. (Author)

A proposed model for the validity of measures of professional competence treats validation as the evaluation of inferences drawn from test scores, focusing on evaluation, generalization, and extrapolation. The model is used to indicate strengths and weaknesses of assessments of professional competence: observations of performance, simulations, and…

This paper describes the construction of a new examination for Federal Coal Mine Inspectors, using the Job Element (J-Scale) method. Headquarters administrators and field inspectors rated the importance of various job elements. The values given to 32 elements, a comparison of test and actual proficiency, ratings, and examples of the rating…

This paper concerns two features of a project on the assessment of job potential: the J-Coefficient, and the J-Scale. The J-Coefficient is a means of determining the validity of a test for a position on the basis of (1) the Beta Weights for predicting test scores from a set of elements and (2) estimates of importance of each element in the…

Research was conducted to develop the Police Career Index (PCI) and the regional assessment center exercises to provide a total personnel evaluation system to help police departments screen applicants, evaluate on-the-job performance of officers eligible for promotion, and gauge a person's suitability for police work. The PCI is based on actual…

Thirteen papers are presented that discuss issues in public personnel decision making, specifically in the area of personnel selection. After an introduction by James P. Springer, the following papers are presented: (1) "History of Employment Testing" (Matthew Hale); (2) "Job Families: A Review and Discussion of Their Implications for Personnel…

The purpose of this paper was to examine an approach to assessing educational needs for school board members, superintendents, and principals and to do that in a way that counteracts the remarkable amount of trivia that has been written on this particular topic. The EASI instrument--Educational Administration Skills Inventory--was used to produce…

The literature on issues of the reliability and validity of objective and performance assessments in vocational education and training was reviewed and synthesized to develop guidelines for procedures to enhance reliability and validity. The review established the following facts: (1) validity is determined largely through inferences made by both…

Ten papers presented at the first annual meeting of the Georgia Educational Research Association describe the following topics in educational research: (1) development and evaluation of the Elementary Curriculum Development Program, which involves individualized instruction in grades K-8; (2) reliability of the eighth grade reading subscales on…

The 75 papers included in these conference proceedings discuss testing conducted by the different brances of the armed forces. The importance of relating necessary job skills to the skills measured by the tests administered to the job applicants is emphasized. Various evaluation methods--including peer rating, aptitude testing, adaptive testing,…