An introduction by Barbara S. Plake emphasizes that this volume investigates social and technical influences on test development and usage. Essential preliminary information on how tests can be used and may be interpreted is presented. Under the heading "Social and Technical Influences" are: (1) "Struggles and Possibilities: The Use…

Items from two American instruments (Students' Evaluation of Educational Effectiveness, and the Endeavor instrument) designed to measure students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness were translated into Spanish and administered to a sample of Spanish university students. Most of the items were judged by the students to be appropriate; every…

The theoretical framework and cross-cultural validation of Tell-Me-A-Story (TEMAS), a projective test developed to measure personality development in ethnic minority children, is presented. The TEMAS test consists of 23 chromatic pictures which incorporate the following characteristics: (1) representation of antithetical concepts which the…

Some examinees' test-taking behavior may be so idiosyncratic that their scores are not comparable to the scores of more typical examinees. Appropriateness indices, which provide quantitative measures of response-pattern atypicality, can be viewed as statistics for testing a null hypothesis of normal test-taking behavior against an alternative…

The main features of courses taught according to the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) as described by Keller are reviewed, along with the use of repeated testing and undergraduate tutors. The PSI approach is also evaluated in terms of final exam performance, study behavior, and student ratings, based on a study conducted at York…

Standardized achievement tests are often misused as indicators of a school's quality or effectiveness relative to other schools. This is an incorrect use because it ignores variation among schools in student abilities, family support of education, student mobility, and other factors. People also misuse tests because they impute to them more…

The procedures used in Phase I of the Individually Guided Education (IGE) evaluation to scale, adjust, and aggregate reading and mathematics achievement in grade 5 are described. An explanation is included of the administration procedures. The tests used (The Short Form Test of Academic Aptitude and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills) and the…

The procedures used in Phase I of the Individually Guided Education (IGE) evaluation to scale, adjust, and aggregate reading and mathematics achievement in grade 2 are described. An explanation is included of the administration procedures. The tests used (the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills and the Short Form Test of Academic Aptitude) and the…

The problems associated with misclassifying students when pass-fail decisions are based on test scores are discussed. One protection against misclassification is to set a confidence interval around the cutting score. Those whose scores fall above the interval are passed; those whose scores fall below the interval are failed; and those whose scores…

A systematic and explicit approach to evaluation of pronunciation is proposed. Generalizability theory was applied in order to comprise all relevant factors in one psychomotor model. French and German pronunciation tests (in Appendix) were devised and evaluated. Common pronunciation problems for native Dutch speakers were incorporated. (Author/LMO)

Analyzes the complexities of the concept of attitude: the origin and history; subcomponents; related concepts including beliefs, opinion, and values; traditional trilogy--cognition, affection, and conation; and some controversies. (YP)

Different models of performance assessment arise from interactions of three dimensions of assessment: the measurement versus the standards model of testing, quantitative and qualitative assumptions concerning the nature of learning, and whether learning and testing are situated or decontextualized. Addresses difficulties in implementing…

Major changes in educational and psychological theories that have come about since the cognitive and affective taxonomies of educational objectives were published in 1956 and 1964 are traced. The changes emphasize the need to understand thinking in the context of students' beliefs and self-directed cognitions. (SLD)

This paper offers college teachers guidelines for improving their teacher made tests. It notes that teachers may focus on how well students have learned course objectives while being unaware of how the testing process itself contributes to the results obtained. The paper reports the results of a test-taking workshop designed to improve college…

Using data from 135 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders between 11 and 15 years old attending a middle school in a suburban Southwest Ohio school district, two hypothesized models of the factor structures for the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory were tested. One model represents the original Coopersmith factor structure, and the other model is…