Psychologist Andrea diSessa coined the term "phenomenological primitives", or p-prims, to talk about nonexperts' reasoning about physical situations. P-prims are primitive in the sense that they stand without significant explanatory substructure or explanation. Examples are "Heavy objects fall faster than light objects" and "Continuing force is…

Sound testing practices and the high-quality information that can result are helpful to those who have oversight, responsibility, or interest in American education. To the extent that tests provide high-quality information, they form the basis for making accurate judgments about individual students. It is equally true, however, that factors which…

To aid preschool and primary teachers, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) is reviewed from the perspective of the early childhood educator. First, a brief annotated bibliography of literature focusing on clinical and educational uses of the WPPSI is provided. The bibliography is followed by a review of basic…

Comprehensive batteries for neuropsychological assessment of children with learning problems,such as the Reitan-Indiana and Luria-Nebraska Children's Batteries, have demonstrated diagnostic validity. Guidelines are proposed for the neuropsychological interpretation of assessment instruments commonly used by school psychologists and educational…

The Woodcock Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery (Revised) is reviewed in regard to its application with learning-disabled (LD) adults. Strengths of the revised test are identified as are concerns about the low representation of LD adults in the normative sample and the complex interpretation process. (DB)

The article provides a statistically derived method of developing an accurate profile analysis of the five major subtest standard scores comprising the "Test of Language Development-Primary" thus helping clinicians determine relative strengths and weaknesses within the child's overall language profile. (Author/DB)

This book provides guidance into the use of storytelling techniques as an approach to personality assessment and explains how to administer, score, and interpret such tests. The tests discussed include the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), the Roberts Apperception Test for Children, and the TEMAS (Tell-Me-a-Story). Each chapter contains callout…

Students with severe/profound mental retardation performed functional tasks under training or probe conditions. Analysis of nine students' records indicated that students do not react to probe conditions as if they were extinction conditions; training data do not consistently reflect performance under probe conditions; and data collected under…

This handbook serves as a guide for administrators and lead teachers in a staff development program for improving the quality of instruction in high schools in Oregon. The staff development program is divided into a 2-day basic training program and a 3-day advanced training program. In the first session, participants learn to establish learning…

In the United States, standardized educational tests have been used for assessment purposes in grades K through 12 almost since the inception of the testing movement in the early 1900s. Because test-based assessment can have wide-ranging positive or negative effects on K-12 students, the test user must ensure that the tests used for assessment…

The paper explores several issues which effect the accurate assessment of language and reading disorders and, thus, of discrepancy between expected potential and actual achievement. For related information see EC 132 758-768. (Author)

This handbook deals with the specifics of integrating teaching and testing in the context of high school classes. It is part of a school-based staff development program for high school teachers and is designed to have faculty members in a department work as a team. Colleagues are asked to help one another develop instructional units and courses…

Describes a method for making standardized test results more useful for teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents by providing information on the test content actually mastered by the student and on the student's individual development over time, as well as providing traditional numerical and norm-referenced scores. (PGD)

This introduction to a clinical forum on children with speech, language, and hearing difficulties focuses on assessment validity. The paper emphasizes that assessment validity depends on the purpose for which the clinician employs the assessment and the inferences the clinician intends to draw, and that assessment interpretation involves degrees…

Assigning grades is an integral part of social work education. However, social work educators must decide whether to use norm-referenced or criterion-referenced measurements to grade exams and other assignments. This paper presents arguments for grading with both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced measurements. The benefits of…