Arguments for and against the use of an oral examination as part of the evaluation process are reviewed and found to rely on the experience of practitioners rather than on empirical research. Several alternatives to the traditional oral examination are discussed as ways to increase the validity of educational evaluations. (AA)

The feasibility of using multiple choice questions as a reliable procedure in testing trainees is discussed, and suggestions for test construction are offered. (BP)

Discusses the systematic assessment of student learning gains by means of pretest and posttest comparisons. This type of assessment is found to be a time consuming procedure but can be a valuable guide to teaching effectiveness when studied in conjunction with a questionnaire which provides feedback about students' opinions. (DB)

A diverse set of techniques for monitoring student progress within competency-based programs of a public community college are discussed and evaluated. Approaches include placement testing, entry self-testing, computer-generated entry surveying and test generation, computer records management, student manuals, and competency-based transcripts.…

Describes an evaluation instrument for college-level introductory American government courses which measures mastery of facts covered by the course. Class lectures do not include the facts; students must learn them through readings and discussions. The instrument thus measures student knowledge gain as well as teaching effectiveness. (AV)

Advocates the use of a free-sort categorization technique for evaluation of higher-order science instructional objectives. An explanation and demonstration of the use of the evaluation technique with 284 ninth-grade science students is provided. (CP)

The author discusses the difficulties inherent in testing procedures when used for classifying children as handicapped, and procedures which could be used to insure that such tests are applied, evaluated, and interpreted in a nondiscriminatory manner. (MB)

Student achievement can be assessed by demonstration, direct observation, unobtrusive measures, oral tests, self-ratings and reports, and on-the-job performance in addition to paper-and-pencil tests. Resulting information can be used for planning, counseling, diagnosing, evaluating, classifying, and grading. An extensive bibliography is appended.…

So as to compare predicted achievement based upon WISC-R IQs and observed achievement by the WRAT standard scores, both instruments were administered by the same school psychologist to 282 urban students referred for psychological evaluation. The correlations obtained were substantial. (Author)

Researched hypothesis-testing strategies (HTSs) used by counselors. Undergraduates and counselors-in-training interacted with a computer-simulated client counselor, then counselor. Of the three HTSs (confirmatory, disconfirmatory, and unbiased), the unbiased HTS was preferred choice of HTS, was stable across time and with different feedback, and…

Two speech perception experiments were conducted with 12 normally hearing adults using a modified speech tracking procedure to determine the effects of controlling connected discourse materials and the effects of specific prompting techniques on tracking rate and subjects' responses. Results showed higher tracking rates for controlled materials.…

Points out that children's growth in response to literature is not assessed by existing standardized tests or by progress from one textbook to another. Suggests guidelines for teacher observation of children's responses and provides a checklist for assessing oral and written reactions. (FL)

During two periods of expansion in higher education, the curriculum of undergraduate education has undergone major changes. Toward the end of each period of expansion, a movement for assessment has developed, with the goal of restoring coherence and substance to the undergraduate program. (MLW)

Evaluation of a 6-year-old's phonological and morphological systems led to the development of three hypotheses regarding the nature of her language impairment which were then tested by monitoring the child's progress in therapy. Results suggested continuing reliance on simplification processes similar to these of younger normal children.…

A number of quality assurance educational evaluation methods are illustrated. Evaluation data obtained from the Providence, Rhode Island, school district are used. The methods are: (1) from auditing, internal control; (2) from accounting, double bookkeeping; and (3) from industrial quality control, acceptance sampling and cumulative percentage…