With the goal of improving the reliability and validity of tests of English as a foreign language, in particular with respect to the question of whether to allow notetaking on EFL/ESL computer-based listening comprehension tests, the present study examined the effects on ESL listening comprehension of notetaking (allowed or disallowed) in relation…

Instructional strategies for successfully teaching concepts are found throughout the instructional design literature. These strategies primarily consist of presenting learners with definitions, examples, and non-examples. While examples are important presentation instruments, theorist suggests that examples should not be re-used in the assessment…

This paper examines the multivariate multiple regression model and explores its applicability to communication research. The first section discusses partitioning of a data matrix, as a heuristic device for distinguishing among alternative regression models. Section two examines various aspects of univariate multiple regression, including the form…

In discussion of assessment and its applicability to the needs of the Spanish-speaking student population, four types of assessments are presented in the context of the educationally significant testing needed in this area. The focus of this paper is on the use of comprehensive assessment to measure the repertoire of language resources that the…

The pretest-posttest design referred to as Design 2 by Campbell and Stanley (1963) is commonly used in educational research and evaluation. The tenability of the assumption of a zero population difference commonly used with this design is questioned. A nonzero population estimate based on the mean difference observed in test-retest reliability…

Noting that the practitioner is confronted with conflicting definitions of "fairness" that claim to avoid "bias" in test usage, this article asserts that "mean fairness" can be achieved by use of multiple regression with the dichotomous variate, group membership, included as a predictor; mean fairness also holds for sub-groupings, based on test…

GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF INFERENTIAL STATISTICAL METHODS AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN WOULD ENABLE LANGUAGE TEACHERS TO INTERPRET OBJECTIVELY AVAILABLE RESEARCH REPORTS AND HOPEFULLY WOULD ENCOURAGE MORE EXPERIMENTATION. TO UNDERSTAND THE EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS, EDUCATORS MUST REALIZE THAT ANY EXPERIMENT IS AS SUCCESSFUL AS THE EXPERIMENTER IS IN…

The purpose of this study was to develop a group test of self-concept which is especially applicable to the Spanish-surnamed primary school student. The pilot version of this instrument, the Primary Self-Concept Scale (PSCS), was designed to measure 5 aspects of self-concept which were felt to be relevant to school success: behavior, intellectual,…

Marascuilo and Levin's (1970) notion of Type IV errors is extended, with respect to the interpretation of interactions in analysis of variance (ANOVA) designs. To help clarity what an interaction is and what it is not, in terms of the ANOVA model, the following points are made: (i) interactions should be thought of as linear contrasts involving…

An attempt is made to indicate why the concept of "true score" naturally leads to the belief that test validity must increase with an increase in test and/or average item reliability, and why this is correct for the classical single-factor model first introduced by Spearman. The statistical model used by Loevinger is introduced to…

The results of analyses of college-bound versus non-college-bound rural youth on tests and personal data available on the IBM cards in the Office of High School Testing at the University of Illinois are presented in this report on the second part of a 3-part study on the educational needs of rural youth. The data on IBM cards for 2,326 juniors and…

The "Cross-Cultural Attitude Inventory" was constructed to measure 1 of the objectives of the bilingual education project of Region XIII Education Service Center in Austin, Texas, serving children aged 6 to 10 years. The educational objective which needed to be measured was whether "the children are taught the history and cultural…

Comparison data on SAT verbal and mathematical were collected on pairs of examinees in three samples for later use in detecting instances of willful copying. Two of the samples were constructed with the knowledge that no examinee could possibly have copied from the answer sheet of any other examinee in the sample. The third sample was taken…

The power of the classical Linear Discriminant Function (LDF) is compared, using Monte Carlo techniques with five other procedures for classifying observations from certain non-normal distributions. The alternative procedures considered are the Quadratic Discriminant Function, a Nearest Neighbor Procedure with Probability Blocks, and three density…

Reports preliminary findings of a study which used a modified Admissible Probability Measurement (APM) test scoring system in the design of computer based instructional management systems. The use of APM for curriculum analysis is discussed, as well as its value in enhancing individualized learning. (Author/LRW)