By administering an attitude survey to 3,328 parents of elementary school students, use of positive and negative Likert item stems was analyzed. Respondents who answered positive/negative item pairs that were parallel in meaning consistently were compared with those who answered inconsistently. Implications for construction of affective measures…

This study evaluated the diagnostic validity of a task measuring abstract categorization ability in learning disabled (LD) and non-LD children. Data showed that the component of abstract category knowledge that best disciminates LD children from non-LD, is the knowledge of how members of abstract categories differ from each other. (Author/JAZ)

To investigate the relationship between reading and listening test scores, 3 different sets of listening items accompanied by answer sheets requiring varying amounts of reading were administered to 1,200 students in grades 3 through 8. Listening scores increased as more printed information was added to the answer sheet. (SLD)

The Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) is a relatively new, statewide performance assessment of students in grades 3, 5, and 8. When first administered in May of 1991, the MSPAP included a battery of performance assessment tasks designed to generate written or drawn responses to reading texts. This study evaluated selected…

Item components that might contribute to the difficulty of items on the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM) and the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) were studied. Subjects providing responses to CPM items were 269 children aged 2 years 9 months to 11 years 8 months, most of whom were referred for testing as potentially gifted. A second…

School achievement attributions for success and failure were examined for American and Polish preadolescents between the ages of 12 and 13 years. The American sample included 115 preadolescents (53 males and 62 females), and the Polish sample included 64 children (34 males and 30 females). The American subjects came from a suburban racially…

Test item selection techniques based on traditional item analysis methods were compared to techniques based on item response theory. The consistency of mastery classifications in criterion referenced reading tests was examined. Pretest and posttest data were available for 945 first and second grade students and for 1796 fourth to sixth grade…

The impact of personalizing mathematical word problems and rewording them for explicitness was tested with 68 second and 59 fifth graders. Second graders benefited from personalization and rewording in combination; fifth graders benefited from personalization, not rewording. Personalization makes problems more motivating and easier to represent…

Gender differences were examined in results from the holistic model reading tests developed by the Pennsylvania State Department of Education. Patterns of differences were examined and interpreted within the context of previous reading research. Data were collected from the Testing for Essential Learning and Literacy Skills (TELLS) reading tests…