This study examined the effect of small class size intervention on student outcomes using reading achievement scores as measured by the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), a standardized, norm-referenced test, while controlling for independent variables inclusive of students' gender, race, socioeconomic status (SES), and environment. This…

Results of the academic achievement of American Indian students in the Robeson County, North Carolina School Administrative Unit are presented in this document. As part of an evaluation of an educational program funded under the Indian Elementary and Secondary School Assistance Act, this document reflects program impact upon the county, its Lumbee…

A pilot study was conducted on test item ambiguity in standardized tests. A group of second and third grade children were selected and given a random sample of items from four standardized test series. Items were drawn from the reading, science and social studies subtests and put together in a composite reading comprehension, science, and social…

The Bayesian approach to setting passing scores, as proposed by Swaminathan, Hambleton, and Algina, is compared with the empirical Bayes approach to the same problem that is derived from Huynh's decision-theoretic framework. Comparisons are based on simulated data which follow an approximate beta-binomial distribution and on real test results from…

A process-product study explored the relationship between quantity and quality of time spent on reading instruction and student achievement in reading. Subjects, 22 third and fourth grade teachers and their 480 students in a small school district in the Piedmont region of South Carolina, used self-report logs to record the quantity of time devoted…

Person fit in the Rasch one parameter model is investigated. The first set of data deals with grade 3 students responding to the mathematics computation and reading vocabulary subscales of the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills Forms (CTBS/S). The second set of data deals with grade 3 students responding to the Basic Skills Assessment Program…

A study determined the effect of shared writing activities on reading comprehension. The subjects, 40 second- and third-grade students from a suburban school in Mercer County, West Virginia, completed the Reading Comprehension Subtest of the Comprehension Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) for grade 2 as a pretest. A control group of 20 students were…

The Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) was administered to over 200 third graders to investigate the effects of using consumable test booklets versus non-consumable booklets which require a separate answer sheet. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant differences in CTBS scores between students using consumable booklets and…

Standardized achievement tests and instructional accomplishment inventories involve different methodologies and cannot be equated by using conventional psychometric methods. Instructional accomplishment inventories are descriptive, and are designed to reflect the scope, sequence, and skills and emphasis in a particular instructional program.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validity of a performance assessment program, the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP). Based on analyses of the longitudinal associations of Grade 5 MSPAP data in 1996 with Grade 3 MSPAP data in 1994, the following hypothesis was examined: the unattentuated correlation or…

The Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) results of 81 West Virginia home-schooled children in grades 3, 6, 9, and 11 were analyzed. Means of each sub-section of these CTBS scores were analyzed for significant differences from the West Virginia public school means for the respective grades and subsections. Families of the children tested…

During the course of a large-scale study of teacher preparation for standardized tests in two low-stakes school districts, the question of whether the attitudes of teachers about standardized tests are a factor in their administration of mandated standardized tests in the classroom was addressed. Third-, fourth-, and sixth-grade teachers (n=178)…

The current study is an extension fo the Instructional Dimensions Study (IDS), part of a comprehensive study of compensatory education programs. This study had two purposes: (1) to investigate achievement changes over the summer of 1977 and during the 1978 calendar year for IDS students, and (2) to compare summer gains of compensatory and…

The results of standardized norm-referenced achievement tests via the state mandated California Assessment Program (CAP) and the Districtwide Testing Program for the 1979-80 school year are summarized. California Assessment Program tests were administered statewide to all third, sixth and twelfth grade students. The nationally standardized…

This study attempted to answer two major questions: (1) Does a significant difference exist between the mean gain scores for achievement in reading and mathematics, as measured by the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), among students from three different architectural school settings (open space, traditional, and mixed); and (2) Do reading…