The desirable characteristics of criterion referenced test items and sets of items are described. A two-stage item tryout and item selection procedure are also described. The paper presents the results of using the procedure as compared with traditional item selection procedures used in selecting items for norm referenced tests. It was found that…

A 2-MONTH BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM TESTED WHETHER A TOKEN REINFORCEMENT MIGHT BE AN EFFECTIVE INCENTIVE TO STIMULATE A DESIRED EDUCATIONAL BEHAVIOR. THE SUBJECTS (SS) WERE TWO MATCHED GROUPS OF FIVE 16- TO 21-YEAR-OLD GIRLS WHO WERE SCHOOL DROPOUTS EMPLOYED IN A NEIGHBORHOOD YOUTH CORPS (NYC) PROGRAM. A CLASSROOM GROUP WAS GIVEN A BASIC EDUCATION…

The study examined whether the California Achievement Test (CAT) results would be affected if the test instructions were administered in the language the children best understood. In a pre-post-test sequence, 77 Mexican American second graders between the ages of 7 and 8 of a low socioeconomic background attending the same elementary school in…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of the initial teaching alphabet (ITA) would have a beneficial effect upon English language learning when used with adult Spanish speaking students. The study consisted of five randomly selected English as a Second Language classes in the Los Angeles City Unified School District divided…

To meet several pre-evaluation goals of the national Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA) Evaluation study, the following activities that were undertaken are described: selection of an achievement measure; a pretest of this measure to assess student needs in schools eligible to receive funds under the Act (schools with a minority enrollment of 50…

Two methods of reading instruction (homogeneous grouping and graded classes) are compared for 165 students in 8 rural North Dakota schools by raw gain scores, residual gain scores, and the analysis of covariance. (CK)