Although most international students arrive with required language qualifications, many struggle with the linguistic demands of their programmes. This study explored whether the test-preparation industry undermines the qualifications with which students arrive. English proficiency of 153 Chinese student in the UK was tested on the Duolingo English…

The Hope Scale is an 11-item teacher-rating instrument designed to help identify academic and social components of giftedness. It provides insights from teachers who work with students on a daily basis, which may differ from the type of information yielded through achievement and ability tests. The Hope Scale development was made possible by the…

We study the properties of two specification tests that have been applied to a variety of estimators in the context of value-added measures (VAMs) of teacher and school quality: the Hausman test for choosing between random and fixed effects and a test for feedback (sometimes called a "falsification test"). We discuss theoretical…

Newton's article (2010) makes three main contributions to the literature. First, it is transatlantic, bringing together literatures that have been dealing with similar problems, using sometimes different methods and certainly with distinctive educational, cultural perspectives. He points out that neither of these literatures has all of the…

Cognitive ability tests are widely used in organizations around the world because they have high predictive validity in selection contexts. Although these tests typically measure several subdomains, testing is usually carried out for a single subdomain at a time. This can be ineffective when the subdomains assessed are highly correlated. This…

The idea that validity should be considered a property of inferences, rather than of assessments, has developed slowly over the past century. In early writings about the validity of educational assessments, validity was defined as a property of an assessment. The most common definition was that an assessment was valid to the extent that it…

The article "Thinking About Linking" by Newton (2010) presents a novel philosophical perspective on the way that educational assessments should be linked. Newton starts by describing the linking framework as it was characterized in various publications and identifies a cross-cultural dimension in the definitions and uses of test…

All published empirical studies of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII), 1974 thru 1980, are reviewed. While only a few predictive validity studies have been completed, concurrent and construct validity studies are consistently supportive of the validity of the General Occupational Themes, Basic Interest Scales and Occupational Scales.…

The known interval scale, referred to as the 7.8 scale, has been criticized as an invalid measuring instrument in the form of an attitude scale. It is the purpose of this paper to demonstrate that this scale can produce spuriously inflated correlation coefficients, high reliability, and false significance on statistical tests. The case will be…

Fifteen female varsity softball coaches were administered the Sport Competition Anxiety Test prior to competition. Their heart rates, continuously monitored by tilemetry, did not relate significantly to the anxiety test data. The test does not appear to be a valid measure of trait anxiety for women softball coaches. (Author/PN)

A large amount of professional interest has been focused upon the ambiguities and problems involved in the conduct of professional licensing and certification through examinations. What seems to be a simple problem on the surface, that being the policing of professionals for competence and the practice of conducting this policing so that it offers…

Not only must personnel tests be validated in compliance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's guidelines, but a correlation must exist between test usage and the decision process involved in personnel selection, placement, and transfer. Journal available from: School of Business Administration, Georgia State Univ., Atlanta, Georgia…

Examines issues related to the measurement of potential learning problems of young children. Looks at the rationale for screening, the instability of behavior, the use of inappropriate measures; defines the "at-risk" population, and problems in prediction. Presents a method for calculating the predictive validity of a screening measure. (RJM)

Reviews the evaluation by the National Academy of Science (NAS) of the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB), which was developed to predict the job performance of potential employees. Proposes that the NAS recommendation to correct the GATB's racial bias by "race-norming" was a political decision and not scientifically justified. (FMW)

Certain conditions are investigated as to whether they are necessary or sufficient to indicate the fairness of a test, or predictor, in its role in the college admissions procedure. Eight general positions are considered that have claimed to provide sufficient conditions for the unbiasedness of a standardized test or predictor: (1) equal test…