In their reactions to my paper, the four authors provide comments that are illuminating and helpful for continuing discussions of the nature and utility of quantitative, comparative, international studies of educational achievement. In this response, I comment further on the issues of test characteristics, sample design, culture and causation.

Numerous short forms of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory have been proposed in the last 15 years. In each case, the initial enthusiasm has been replaced by the questions about the clinical utility of the abbreviated version. Argues that the statistical properties of the test and reduced reliability due to shortening the scales…

Discusses, for the benefit of research workers and other test users, the ongoing controversy concerning the relative merits of conventional test theory and Rasch scaling in the construction of reading tests. Concludes that a great deal of further research is required to see whether these approaches are educationally valid. (JD)

This article invokes a literal image of test givers as measurement devices and explores the psychometric properties of these test administrator instruments. Concurrent and content validation and test-retest and parallel-forms validity are explored. (SLD)

Discusses authenticity in language testing in relation to the language proficiency movement. Looks at both sociolinguistic and psychometric principles as they are concerned with authenticity and validity as well as the inferential distance that separates face validity from techical validities. Criticizes the belief that some test type possess…

Unlike traditional K-12 programs, which educate youth to take their place in society, the GED (General Educational Development) Tests certify that adults possess the major and lasting outcomes of a high school program of study. Instead of a high school diploma that signifies the successful completion of a particular course of study, the GED…

This article presents an analysis of Ordinate Corporation's PhonePass Spoken English Test-10. The company promotes this product as being a useful assessment tool for screening job candidates' ability in spoken English. In the real-life domain of the work environment, one of the primary target language use tasks involves extended production…

Examines the CUNY-WAT program and questions many aspects of it, especially the choice and phrasing of topics. (FL)

The topic of this paper is the second of a two-faceted problem involving achievement testing in the United States. The first facet is the lack of correspondence between test content and intended student outcomes in school districts, and the second facet is "test score pollution." Test score pollution describes instances where test scores for a…

Criticizes the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude 2 (DLTA-2): (1) scoring criteria for the Story Construction Test are questionable; (2) the Word Fragment Test may not be practically significant; (3) the Picture Book is inconvenient to use without an index or table of contents. One major strength is the provision for combining subtest scores. (SRT)

Nonrestricted-answer, multiple-choice test items are recommended as a way of including more facts and fewer incorrect answers in test items, and they do not cue successful guessing as restricted multiple choice items can. Examination construction, scoring, and reliability are discussed. (MSE)

Discusses two reasons why the state of writing performance may worsen when, beginning in 1983, Tennessee high school students must pass a proficiency test as a condition for graduation; reasons are the objective nature of the test and the language performance objectives which the test proposes to measure. (NEC)

Elaborates on and responds to challenges of direct writing assessment. Speculates on future directions in writing assessment. Suggests that, if writing instructors accept that writing is a multidimensional, situational construct that fluctuates across a wide variety of contexts, then they must also respect the complexity of teaching and testing…

Concerns about norm-referenced achievement tests involve (1) the purposes of the tests (comparability of results); (2) the content of the tests; (3) psychometric screening of test items; (4) the form of tests items; (5) the interpretation of summary scores; and (6) the construct validity of the tests. Offers guidelines for use of norm-referenced…

In many African countries tests used as a selection examination for entrance to secondary and higher levels of education do not have content validity. The practices and problems of test development in Africa are discussed. The advantages of domain-referenced tests are examined. (RM)