The concept that a child's potential reading level can be measured via listening comprehension has at least one major shortcoming: it is of doubtful worth for children in grades one through three. First, reading comprehension and listening comprehension are not approximately equal early in a child's schooling. In fact, it seems that they generally…

The author discusses the state of the art in assessment of African American children with possible handicaps. He asserts that changes must be made regarding the goal of assessment, the role of the assessors, the process of assessment, the criterion for validity, and the preparation of assessors. He further suggests that the problem with testing is…

An investigation of the relative validity of self-assessments versus standardized tests indicated that both self-assessments and objectively tested abilities were significantly related to supervisory ratings of overall job performance. While these correlations were not significantly different, further analysis revealed that objectively tested…

Controversy has characterized the research on writing. On the one side are those who state that, to evaluate achievement in writing, evaluate the writing of students. On the other side are those pointing out the problems associated with direct measures of writing such as low reliability and high cost in terms of time and often dollars. The purpose…

Errors in oral reading tests result from inaccuracies that tend to creep in because children are not totally consistent while taking a test and from inaccuracies caused when the examiner does not catch a word recognition error, giving credit for an answer that is more wrong than right or vice versa. Every test contains a standard error of…

After employees of private firms completed several rapid reading classes and achieved remarkable gains on the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, the question was raised as to whether the increases in scores were due to the increased number of items attempted on the posttest. A preliminary analysis indicated that students attempted an average of 14.6 and…

The Basic Skills Assessment (BSA) is a national secondary level testing program which provides secure tests in reading, writing, and mathematics. It is designed to identify students who need additional instruction in the basic skills so they may be helped to reach the school district's secondary school graduation requirements. One of the BSA's…

The practice and interpretation of intelligence testing of educable retarded and learning disabled children is examined in this report. The current and future state of intelligence testing is discussed in terms of its predictive, diagnostic, and remedial functions. The first section places a consideration of individual testing formats within a…

The lack of a suitable research instrument on attitudes of elementary school children toward school and subject matters has limited the quality and extent of research on school attitudes. The Affective Reporting System was conceived to fill this need. It consists of two instruments--ME and What I Like Best (WILB), each possessing two versions:…

The reliability and meaning of assertiveness tests were explored using 120 female undergraduates. Several self-report inventories (the College Self-Expression Scale, Conflict Resolution Inventory, and a global rating from one to seven) were administered, as were three anxiety measures (Timed Behavior Checklist, response latency, and response…

Much of the language and many constructs used in testing and assessment must be redefined in order for testing instruments to be valid for use with children of African-American descent. These children are products of unique linguistic environments. Current educational assessment tools are insensitive to the cultural-linguistic diversity of the…

FIFTY-ONE SURVEY-TYPE GROUP READING TESTS DESIGNED FOR USE WITH HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE SUMMARIZED AND REVIEWED BRIEFLY. INFORMATION IS GIVEN ON THE RELIABILITY, VALIDITY, CONTENT, NUMBER OF FORMS, GRADE LEVEL, WORKING AND ADMINISTRATION TIME, DATA, PUBLISHER, GENERAL ABILITIES MEASURED, AND AUTHORS OF EACH TEST. COMMENTS ABOUT TEST…

The Vocational Instruction, Training and Assessment (VITA) Project conducted a study to determine whether a battery of tests used with a sample of handicapped students enrolled in vocational education program(s) could aid in predicting success in vocational training. Procedures, instruments, and student samples were selected to provide data on (1)…