In this speech given at the 1976 annual breakfast of the National Council on Measurement in Education Dr. Thomas J. Fitzgibbon, outgoing president of NCME, responds to critics of standardized testing and outlines the correct uses for it. He believes that many criticisms of standardized testing are due to misunderstanding or a lack of information.…

Designed to measure self-actualization as defined by Abraham Maslow, the Jones Self Actualizing Scale, as assessed in this study, possesses content validity, reliability, and a number of other positive characteristics. (JC)

The relationships among Rao's canonical factor analysis, Kaiser and Coffrey's alpha factor analysis, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient are discussed. Implications for test reliability and validity are noted. (JKS)

Suggests four questions teachers can ask to determine whether a standardized test has provided accurate information about a particular student. (DD)

Two new methods for constructing a credibility interval (CI)--an interval containing a specified proportion of true validity description--are discussed, from a frequentist perspective. Tolerance intervals, unlike the current method of constructing the CI, have performance characteristics across repeated applications and may be useful in validity…

Presents data on the interrater reliability, internal consistency, factor structure, and discriminant validity of the Cognitive Therapy Scale (CTS). Results indicate that the CTS can be used with only moderate interrater reliability but the aggregation can be used to increase reliability. The CTS is highly homogeneous and provides a relatively…

The MMPI was translated into Puerto Rican Spanish and administered to 663 high school students and 122 mental health clients aged 15-18 years. Findings demonstrated that the MMPI, applied in a different language and to a different age group, has successfully accomplished the task for which it was originally designed. (DC)

Examined trait and trait and state inventories as measures of anxiety. The probabilistic Rasch Model was applied to 100 athletes' responses to trait and state anxiety items before competition. Results indicated that items of both scales produced misfit responses and did not produce equal units of measurement. (Author/NRB)

Critiques six frequently used counselor rating scales: the Counselor Rating Form, the Counselor Rating Form-Short Version, the Barrett-Lenard Relationship Inventory, the Counselor Evaluation Inventory, the Counselor Effectiveness Scale, and the Counselor Effectiveness Rating Scale. Examines validity, reliability, and pragmatic utility of each…

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…

Investigated the reliability and concurrent validity of the Inpatient Memory Impairment Scale (IMIS), using a group of memory-impaired chronic alcoholic and Korsakoff patients (N=20). Analysis revealed that the IMIS had a high degree of internal consistency and that interrater reliability is also high. (LLL)

Assesses the reliability and validity of the Belief in Human Benevolence scale in two studies of college students. Found that the scale possesses satisfactory levels of reliability and impressive convergent validity with numerous criteria but is subject to unwanted contamination from social desirability response style variance. (Author/JAC)

The correlation between bias components of test scores and unbiased observed scores is shown to be an effective predictor of changes in reliability and validity resulting from elimination of bias. Plausible assumptions about value of correlation and size of related variance components indicate that reducation in reliability and validity is a…

A test found responses to the Sickness Impact Profile highly reliable, whether administered in Spanish or English. However, construct validity of responses by Mexican Americans using the Spanish version, non-Hispanics using the English version, and Mexican Americans using the English version was weak. (CMG)