In recent years, the Education for All movement has focused more intensely on the quality of education, rather than simply provision. Many recent and current education quality interventions focus on literacy, which is the core skill required for further academic success. Despite this focus on the quality of literacy instruction in developing…

Multiple-choice (MC) reading comprehension test items comprise three components: text passage, questions about the text, and MC answers. The construct validity of this format has been repeatedly criticized. In three between-subjects experiments, fourth graders (N[subscript 1] = 230, N[subscript 2] = 340, N[subscript 3] = 194) worked on three…

Item response theory (IRT) methods are generally used to create score scales for large-scale tests. Research has shown that IRT scales are stable across groups and over time. Most studies have focused on items that are dichotomously scored. Now Rasch and other IRT models are used to create scales for tests that include polytomously scored items.…

Results show that the mean number of Occupational Aptitude Patterns (OAP's) generated for a sample of mentally retarded and boarderline intelligence students is significantly greater for the Nonreading Aptitude Test Battery (NATB) than for the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB). (DEP)

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was examined for instances in which the item performance of examinees with comparable scores differed according to their native languages. A chi-square procedure, sensitive to deviations of less than ten percent from the expected frequencies of correct item responses across several language groups,…

Two experiments with approximately 377 newly enlisted Air Force personnel and 182 college students investigated the validity of a reading span test combining a knowledge verification task with a word memorization task. Results support the hypothesis that word recall reflects the amount of working memory functional in reading. (SLD)

Reliability and validity of a new measure of cognitive speed, the Speed of Thinking Test (SST), were investigated with 129 college students, who also completed a vocabulary test, a test of reading speed, and a test of reading comprehension. The SST appears to be a reliable and valid measure. (SLD)

To help college reading teachers develop an awareness of what standardized reading tests do and do not reveal about students' reading abilities, a study examined the testing of reading and criticized four major standardized tests. Results indicated that reading is tested through (1) reading passages accompanied by multiple choice questions, (2)…

This paper contains a comparison of descriptive information based on analyses of pilot and live administrations of the Alabama High School Graduation Examination (AHSGE). The test is composed of three subject tests: Reading, Mathematics, and Language. The study was intended to validate the test development procedure by comparing difficulty levels…

A South Texas survey conducted in 1975 investigated the reading performance of Mexican American students enrolled in a bilingual program to determine whether or not students achieved significantly different reading scores on parallel Spanish and English versions of an appropriate test (Guidance Testing Associates Inter-American Test of Reading).…

This paper compares descriptive information based on analyses of the pilot and live administrations of the Alabama High School Graduation Examination (AHSGE). The AHSGE, a product of decisions made in 1977 and 1984 by the Alabama State Board of Education, is composed of subject tests in reading, mathematics, and language. The pass score for each…

The results of different types of reading achievement measures were compared for 58 low-income urban black third graders. Two formal tests were administered: the norm-referenced California Achievement Tests (CAT), and the criterion-referenced Alabama Basic Competency Test (ABCT). Informal measures included the Houghton-Mifflin Informal Reading…