The Preschool Rating Scale (PRS) consists of twenty Guttman scaled items which assess a preschool child's personal-social development. Experience gained over the past two years indicate that it can be used: (1) for screening; (2) for program evaluation; (3) as a guide to the teachers in identifying specific areas of development which may need…

The reliability and validity of the Myself as a Teacher Scale (MTS), developed to assess the self-concept of teachers, were studied. Materials developed by David P. Butts and Robert Howe were used to construct a 62-item Likert-type scale asking individuals to rate themselves on certain criteria. After a pilot study with 92 preservice teachers and…

In fall 1986, a study was conducted at Florence-Darlington Technical College (South Carolina) to measure the reliability and validity of the TEC-MAT, a newly developed entrance test. The TEC-MAT instrument, a criterion-referenced test consisting of 100 items assessing numerical skills, was field tested among a group of entry-level freshmen already…

The composite of Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) subtests used to select applicants for entry-level training in Army clerical schools was evaluated by correlating composite scores with training performance scores. Comparisons were made between the multiple R for this optimal set of predictors and that for the composite of…

Assessment procedures were developed to identify those naval officers who would be most effective in providing career guidance services to enlisted personnel. Several tests were administered to officers performing career counseling duties. These tests included a cognitive battery, the Navy Basic Test Battery (BTB); as well as the Guilford Tests of…

The issue of using language proficiency or language dominance to assess programs for high school students with limited English speaking backgrounds is addressed. The development and initial analyses of the Competency Based Oral Language Assessment (COLA) are discussed. Three components of oral language are rated separately: semantics; syntax and…

The controversy on the importance of children's attitudes toward their educational experiences has focused on two major questions: First, are attitudes an appropriate concern for educational systems; and second, are attitudes important as correlates of critical educational behaviors or simply as ends in themselves? This study attempted to add some…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) reading readiness, linguistic awareness, and nonverbal problem solving ability in relation to first grade reading achievement; (2) predictive accuracy of third…

The Board of Education of the Houston Independent School District, through the Volunteers in Public Schools, organized the Kindergarten Screening Project in 1970. The Kindergarten Screening Instrument (KSI) consists of five sub-scales: (1) the visual scale measures visual acuity at 20 feet; (2) the hearing scale measures the child's ability to…

This book addresses the question of what tests are measures of. Intelligence, achievement, and personality tests not based on empirical investigation have questionable validity. Some researchers now suspect that almost all tests given to students in all subjects, as well as general tests of intelligence and personality, are essentially language…

A central problem for the user of domain-referenced tests in instruction is deciding who has passed and who has failed. Two procedures were presented and discussed. The first, employing classical test theory, was found to be more useful for larger domains and where the passing standard is 70 percent or less. The sampling procedure suggested by…

A 3-year study was conducted to validate the eight-factor Vocational Capacity Scale (VCS), designed for use with the retarded. Subjects were 366 institutionalized mental retardates, both educable and trainable, aged 15 to 30, who were administered the VCS twice, 1 year apart. Social workers and staff worked individually to promote the highest…

This symposium on the learning organization is comprised of three papers. "Leading the Learning Organization" (James R. Johnson) examines actions that four leaders of widely diverse organizations took to transform an organization into a learning organization. (Leaders who were successful in implementing the learning organization concept…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1)learning literacy skills in a remedial reading classroom; (2) the development of an observation instrument designed to classify specific nonverbal communication…

In 1979-80, a study was conducted at Dundalk Community College (DCC) to assess the procedures and instruments used to place students in the three options of its developmental education program: Option A (for students with the lowest assessment scores), Option B (for those with low assessment scores), and regular developmental courses. The study…