Focuses on objective techniques, a powerful and long-run force in educational assessment. But how successful have individual objective techniques been? This question must be answered for each test. Includes brief reference to an evaluation of one instrument. (Author)

Much of what has developed in the testing of reading harkens back to the days of the "Cult of Efficiency" movement in education that can be largely attributed to Frederick Winslow Taylor. Taylor spent most of his productive years studying time and motion in an attempt to streamline industrial production so that people could work as…

This paper summarizes some of the issues involved in educational testing. First, it describes four of the fundamental characteristics of tests: whether they are measures of aptitude or achievement, whether they require students to produce or just recognize the best answer, whether they are interpreted in relationship to the scores of other…

Although by traditional measures of test validity, the verbal section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is not culture biased, it, along with the English Composition Test and the Test of Standard Written English, reinforces a narrow view of academic excellence that excludes culturally different youths. Designed to prevent admission errors, the…

Following a summary of what is presently known about transfer skills, the options available for assessment of transfer skills are identified and problems inherent in that task examined. Transfer skills (the ability or capacity of the learner or worker to transfer skills or knowledge from prior experiences to new ones) are discussed using the work…