Percentile scores appear to be the easiest standardized test scores for parents to understand. Yet in this true-false test, Hills reveals commonly held misconceptions about percentile score reports. (LC)

Inmates score significantly lower on the second edition (BETA II) than on the first edition (BETA I), regardless of the order of administration. BETA I score distributions were unaffected by the order of administration. BETA II score distributions depended on whether BETA II was administered first or second. (Author)

Scores from tests in the same battery are put on scales which are the "same" in some sense, so that certain interpretations are made easier. This is often done when scores for different tests are obtained on different population segments, especially such as newer, more varied batteries of test offerings. It is felt that traditional erroneous…

Compared the test scores of high and low anxious subjects when the Wechsler Adult Intelligence scale was administered by a trained examiner or mechanically. Findings indicated that performance was influenced by test administration procedures. There was a trend to score higher on the test given by an examiner. (Author/JAC)

The current preoccupation in the United States with test-based accountability is founded on a set of faulty assumptions--about education practices elsewhere in the world, about international test score comparisons, and about the extent to which test scores are valid indicators of the quality of education or the state of the economy. For example,…

Both on-level and out-of-level tests were administered to third and fifth grade children in order to compare the scaled scores of different level tests of the same testing program and to discover whether the relationship between levels might be distorted by ceiling or floor effects. Only reading tests were used in this study. The Stanford…

The increased use of criterion-referenced statewide testing programs is an outgrowth of the need for more diagnostic information for planning and decision making than is provided by norm-referenced programs. There remains, however, a need for state agencies to compare the results of local districts to a variety of comparison groups for the purpose…

Concern was expressed for the possible effects of testing Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I students with norm-referenced tests that may be so difficult that many students will have scores in the chance range. The likelihood of such students obtaining equal scaled scores if they were tested with easier out-of-level tests was…

Fourth, seventh, and ninth grade students in Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I programs were tested with the reading comprehension subtests of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, at each of two levels: on-level for each respective grade, and an easier out-of-level form. Approximately half of these students were found to be…