This article analyzes potential problems in using standardized achievement tests in early childhood education settings. The first problem discussed is whether the outcomes typically measured by standardized achievement tests are the outcomes about which early childhood educators are most concerned. Second, it is argued that a concern for test…

THIS IS A METHODOLOGICAL STUDY TO DETERMINE IF RELIABLE AND VALIDLY COMPARABLE DATA CAN BE OBTAINED FROM SCALES DESIGNED FOR USE WITH HEARING IMPAIRED, VISUALLY IMPAIRED, AND NON-IMPAIRED HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. THE MAJOR INSTRUMENTS ASSESSED SELF CONCEPT OF ACADEMIC ABILITY. IT WAS CONCLUDED ON THE BASIS OF CROSS-VALIDATION AND OTHER ANALYTICAL…

SINCE NO TESTS OF SPANISH SPEAKING ABILITY AT THE ELEMENTARY LEVEL WERE AVAILABLE WHEN THE PROJECT BEGAN (1960), IT DEVISED THREE CAREFULLY CONSTRUCTED ITEMS TESTING THE SEPARATE ASPECTS OF THE SPEAKING SKILL--PHONETIC ACCURACY, STRUCTURE, AND EASE AND NATURALNESS OF EXPRESSION. A RANDOM SELECTION OF FIFTH-GRADE PUPILS WERE TESTED INDIVIDUALLY,…

Florida State University instituted a mandatory system to be used in making promotion and tenure decisions, in which teaching faculty were rated by their students. Under an agreement with Michigan State University, the Student Instructional Rating System (SIRS) was adapted for use on the Florida State campus. Since the data were to be used to…

The College Outcome Measures Project (COMP) was organized to design, develop, validate, and disseminate assessment instruments and procedures to measure and evaluate the knowledge and skills that undergraduate students are expected to acquire as a result of general or liberal education programs, as well as those important to effective functioning…

TAILOR is a computer program that uses the implied orders concept as the basis for computerized adaptive testing. The basic characteristics of TAILOR, which does not involve pretesting, are reviewed here and two studies of it are reported. One is a Monte Carlo simulation based on the four-parameter Birnbaum model and the other uses a matrix of…

The purpose of the study was to develop an instrument to assess the career awareness possessed by elementary school children in order to provide base-line information for curriculum decisions. The instrument was formulated from established career content resources congruent with developmental theory. Validation was accomplished with data collected…

The annotated bibliography on tests and measurements for identification of the gifted contains approximately 75 abstracts and associated indexing information for documents published from 1959 to 1973 and selected from the computer files of the Council for Exceptional Children's Information Services and the Education Resources Information Center…

The study's purpose was to use the Adjective Check List (ACL), a self-administered personality assessment instrument, to determine whether there were response differences between a sample of Adult Basic Education (ABE) students and the general test norms. The ACL was administered to 142 students in ABE high school completion programs in Des…

Intended as a comprehensive introduction to the construction and use of foreign language tests, this book utilizes modern linguistic knowledge as a base for scientific language testing. Major attention in testing is focused on such integrated language skills as auditory and reading comprehension, speaking, writing, translation, and over-all…

The Vocational and Occupational Interest Choice Examination (VOICE) was designed to measure the interests of enlisted men entering the Air Force. Items forming the inventory were primarily generated by examining job analysis in relation to the airman classification structure. The purpose of this effort was to develop and validate a prototype of an…

The object of this research was to develop a measure of motivation of elementary school children to predict academic achievement independent of intelligence. Three basic steps were proposed to analyze data from approximately200 Black children. These steps were: l) operational (content) analysis of two free response measures, resulting in a coder's…

The rationale and development of a new series of motion picture tests of perceptual abilities of young children are described, and preliminary data regarding their reliability and validity are presented. The data suggests that the film tests are promising new perceptual measurement instruments. (MS)

Technical improvements, which may be made in the reliability and validity of tests through confidence scores, are discussed. However, studies indicate that subjects do not handle their confidence uniformly. (MS)

This paper highlights some special characteristics of criterion-referenced tests while comparing them with norm-referenced tests. Psychometric considerations involved in constructing a criterion-referenced test, including item analysis, reliability, and validity, are discussed, along with application of criterion-referenced testing to individual…