A project to field test instruments and procedures for measuring English language proficiency, to be used in a large-scale national household survey, is reported. The major purposes of the field test were to measure the validity of census-type questions for determining language proficiency, using several different bilingual ethnic groups, and to…

A project to develop a measure of English language proficiency (MELP) for use in a national survey of income and education, to estimate the number of people of limited English proficiency, is reported. The preferred form of the instrument was a short series of questions to be asked by an interviewer and answered by an adult member of a household.…

A review of the literature on the validity and reliability of survey data is presented prior to an analysis of the reliability of selected questions in the Second Followup Questionnaire of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS). The reliability study includes an evaluation of test-retest reliability as a function of…