Reviews the Curriculum Referenced Tests of Mastery that are intended to measure achievement, with the emphasis on measuring what a student has learned rather than predicting future success in school, concluding that the tests are worthy of consideration by any district. (HOD)

Indicates that certain items in reading comprehension tests are not measuring for hearing impaired students the particular reading skill they are intended to measure. Argues for a word/idea association strategy as the explanation for this and briefly discusses its relevance for testing and educating the hearing impaired. (FL)

This paper reports changes in the professional knowledge, general knowledge, and communication skills components of the National Teacher Examinations and explains validation procedures. Research efforts to: (1) establish the tests' credibility and usefulness; (2) identify factors the tests measure; and (3) study their relationship to effective…

Describes a study of college students that investigated the interaction between instructional mode and testing mode. Computer learning and testing versus paper-and-pencil methods are compared, and treatments for the experimental and control groups are described. Areas for further research are suggested. (20 references) (LRW)

Literature related to the multiple true-false (MTF) item format is reviewed. Each answer cluster of a MTF item may have several true items and the correctness of each is judged independently. MTF tests appear efficient and reliable, although they are a bit harder than multiple choice items for examinees. (SLD)

The concurrent validities of 3 short forms of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) were compared for their prediction of full-scale IQ for 145 male and 159 female psychiatric inpatients. Results support previous research showing better predictive accuracy for L. C. Ward's (1990) seven-subtest short form than the others. (SLD)

Interset and set-to-total correlations for the California Card Sorting Test were studied for 135 college students and 63 elementary school students. Although subsets were not equivalent, the generally good correlations between subset and total test scores indicated that use of the individual subsets as short forms is justified. (SLD)

The purpose of the study was to determine comparability of an online version to the original paper-pencil version of Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT2). This study employed methods from both Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT). Findings from CTT analyses supported the reliability and discriminant validity of both versions.…

The reliability and validity of three short forms of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III (WISC-III) were compared. Each of the short forms was a tetrad composed of two verbal and two performance subtests. The first tetrad was selected based primarily on practical considerations, particularly its brevity to administer and score. The…

This report describes the development, construction, and validation of the Preliminary Chinese Proficiency Test (Pre-CPT), a standardized, nationally-normed test of listening and reading comprehension for beginning-level native English-speaking learners of Chinese as a second language. The Pre-CPT was designed as a lower-level version of the…

This report describes and summarizes findings on four National Teachers Examination tests provided by 45 faculty reviewers from six Oregon institutions of higher education. The tests were judged on the basis of students' opportunity to learn knowledge measured in test items and the importance of knowledge of items for beginning teachers. Tests…

Steps are outlined in the construction of two self-report assessment scales designed to measure general life satisfaction and leisure activity levels of developmentally disabled adults. The potential usefulness of a reliable, valid self-report instrument as a measurement tool in client programming is noted in the context of a review of similar…

A study examined whether the process of gathering verbal reports of subjects' thinking while taking multiple-choice critical thinking tests could be used to infer the reasoning process used and identify test items which do not require critical thinking skills. Four factors can render an inference of a subject's critical thinking skills…

In light of the widespread use of competency testing, the authors consider that it is important to determine ways of developing and using competency testing to insure that it achieves its full potential. The paper, in three parts, introduces a model for the development and validation of competency tests, reviews several methods for setting…

Describes a conversation measure for evaluation communicative competence of deaf adolescents and adults in light of: 1) the rationale behind its development; 2) its independence of the subjects' language variety; and 3)its use in a study of 40 deaf adolescents. The interview protocal is give in the Appendix. (Author/LMO)