The practice of evaluating certain special education tests in terms of traditional test evaluation procedures appears inconsistent with observations that these tests are often so closely tied to instructional procedures that they are not separable in practice. (Author)

Cautions against a statewide proficiency test based on the author's experience as a high school English teacher with the Michigan High School Proficiency Test. Discusses how, while meant to foster accountability, rigor, and standards, the test instead creates panic, uniformity, and a subversion of sound language arts practice. Discusses how this…

Designed to monitor school accountability, KIRIS (Kentucky Instructional Results Information System) offers a powerful lesson about how high-stakes accountability systems can distort and undermine original visions for effective curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices. Changes have been influenced by several interconnected elements:…

Problems in the use of one-time external examiners to assess nursing students in clinical practice include overemphasis on individuals, lack of criterion referencing, input of clinical staff, halo effect, and cost. Continuous assessment, appropriately recorded, may be more satisfactory. (SK)

Multidimensional creativity tests are more cost-effective than expert opinion in predicting creative thinking. Torrance (1966) delineated five purposes for using creativity tests: to promote understanding of the human mind, assist development of individualized instruction, provide additional information for remedial and psychotherapeutic programs,…

Given that competition can motivate students to perform better on high-stakes tests, this article ponders what might be done to help students take the relatively low-stakes National Assessment of Educational Progress tests more seriously. So far, offering intrinsic and extrinsic rewards has yielded mixed or questionable results. (MLH)

This paper describes the PEACEful assessment process for testing anxious gifted children. Steps include: (1) Preparing the test setting; (2) Encouraging the child's exploration; (3) Acclimating the child to the testing process; (4) Conducting calm and unhurried assessments; and (5) Evaluating and adapting interactions with the child. A case study…

Discusses findings of studies that examined the relationship between vision, hearing, and cognitive function in normally aging adults. Indicates that most found at least modest significant relationships between sensory and cognitive measures based on diverse assessment and design methods. (Contains 42 references.) (JOW)

Offers standard errors of prediction and confidence intervals for Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) that help in deciding whether variation in obtained scores of scale administered to the same person more than once is a result of measurement error or whether it reflects actual change in examinee's functional level. Presented values were…

Outlines some practical procedures for assessing test quality. Tests are relevant when learning outcomes have been correctly defined, when test content is aligned with instructional objectives, and when test and instructional formats are similar. Reliable tests follow administration, scoring, and interpretation procedures and consider difficulty…

Despite teachers' most valiant efforts, the taught and the experienced curricula are not always the same. Most tests are inappropriate measures of the experienced curriculum. A Vermont elementary school has been assembling classroom activity data to help educators understand how children process the curriculum. Helpful assessment activities are…

A model is proposed that describes subject behavior on repeat paired comparison preference tests. The model extends prior work in this area in that it explicitly allows for abstentions and permits the derivation of individual true scores of discrimination ability as well as conditional estimates of proportionate preference. (Author/TJH)

A method for detecting and interpreting disturbances of the local-independence assumption among items that share common stimulus material or other features is presented. Dichotomous and polytomous Rasch models are used to analyze structure of the learning outcome superitems. (SLD)

Discusses factors which lead to the overuse of and overreliance on standardized tests in the United States. (MM)

Describes a classroom demonstration that illustrates the error of using an inappropriate test to conclude that a specific ability does not exist within a subject or a population. Shows ways to expand the lesson to cover the issue of null conclusions. Points out social and methodological implications of the demonstration. (Author/LS)