This article provides guidelines for an entry-level course that prepares psychology students and practitioners to acquire entry-level skills, abilities, knowledge, and attitudes important to the individual assessment of intellectual abilities of children and youth. The article reviews prominent international, regional, and national policies,…

Educational assessment and, more broadly, educational research in the United States have entered into an era characterized by a dramatic increase in the prevalence and importance of test score use in accountability systems. This volume covers a selection of contemporary issues about testing science and practice that impact the nation's public…

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Revised and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised were administered in a conterbalanced design to 14 educable mentally handicapped 16-year-olds. Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQ scores were compared. Correlations and matched t-tests were computed and the results indicated that Verbal and…

Learning Disabled children (N=198) were tested on both the WISC-R (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised) and K-ABC (Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children). Joint factor analysis produced three-factor and four-factor solutions. Factors corresponding to three K-ABC scales generally converged with three WISC-R factors. (Author/CL)

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children's (K-ABC) systematic effort to achieve fairness for minorities and exceptional children in the assessment process is appealing, but potential for abuse is real. As the K-ABC has reduced the black/white IQ discrepancy, it should have a positive and stimulating effect on this persistent issue in…

Interviewed 90 elementary school teachers on how they used the results of group IQ tests. Data indicated 30 percent of teachers reported making "little or no use" of the test scores. However, 84 percent of teachers stated that they used the test scores for one or more purposes. Discusses four most frequently mentioned uses. (Author/RC)

In the United States today tests of the ability to perform well in school divide society and define opportunity. Higher education has become a major focus of aspirations people hold for their children, and educational testing determines who qualifies for higher education. This history recounts the development of intelligence testing and its early…

Commercially available tests and measurement instruments for use with English-speaking subjects are described and reviewed. Only tests that are new, have been revised since last reviewed in the Mental Measurements Yearbook series, or are considered established and highly used are included. The contents are as follows: (1) a bibliography of…

A decade ago intelligence testing was in its beginnings in the United States. There were no standardized tests available except those of the Binet-Simon scale. These tests had been used but little, and chiefly for the detection and classification of the backward and the feeble-minded. Goddard had just begun pioneer work in this field, while…

Many public and private kindergartens in New York use standardized tests for admission into their programs. How parents and teachers feel about these tests was studied. Parents were asked whether their child had taken any standardized kindergarten admission test, whether they discussed the results with a professional, whether the results really…

The use of standardized testing in secondary schools (with students between 10 and 19 years old) is described for four European countries: (1) England; (2) West Germany; (3) the Netherlands; and (4) Sweden. In the decentralized English system, several published standardized tests are available; they are used less at the secondary level than in…

How standardized achievement and mental ability tests are used in the schools, and what parents and teachers think about such testing, were investigated. Guided inventories were administered to 207 teachers from 10 schools and to 223 parents from 12 Parent-Teacher Association groups. Intensive individual interviews were conducted with 15 testing…

This package contains articles in three general areas: items covering measurement topics; brief and practical guides on measurement techniques; and professional reading on broader assessment issues. The purpose of these publications by "Set" is to provide research information to teachers. The initial article, "Overview of Issues in…

This fact sheet lists problems involved in the use of standardized tests. It is argued that standardized tests are not really fair and helpful evaluation tools because they reward the ability to answer superficial questions quickly and do not measure the ability to think or create in any field. They also assume that all test takers have been…

Reviews the major issues involved in testing Black children and youth. Argues that testing must be demystified by improving professional training, and that testing must be viewed as only one part of the assessment of achievement and ability. Concludes that more Black professionals must be included in the process of test development and…