Reviews selected research, widely-used commercial tests, and recent literature on critical thinking. States that evaluation of critical thinking processes should encompass more than simple tests. Concludes with six guidelines for evaluating critical thinking. (JDH)

Two studies on college students determined the physical effects of responding to questions while taking a walking/running treadmill test. Effects on heart rate, rating of perceived exertion, and time to voluntary exhaustion were observed. Results are discussed. (Author/DF)

Surveys the development of language tests toward authenticity and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of indirect and direct (authentic) language tests. Discusses the difficulty of applying appropriate psychometric measures to tests using real-life language, and the large number of tests variables which interfere with the authenticity of…

Discusses the shortcomings of the Snellen eye chart as a vision screeing test and proposes the use of a newer test--the Modified Telebinocular Technique. (MTT)

The concept of change is related to suppressor variable conditions in a least square regression model. The domain of conditions necessary for a weighted change score composite to emerge as an underlying construct is mapped and the information loss through arbitrary assignment of weights to a change composite is explored. (Author/BW)

Examines the CUNY-WAT program and questions many aspects of it, especially the choice and phrasing of topics. (FL)

Two tests of critical thinking (the Cornell Critical Thinking Test and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal) were evaluated by a panel of psychologists relative to the validity, reliability, and error of measurement standards stated in the "Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests," 1974. (PN)

In an attempt to restore the symmetry and balance between the study of person and item variation, this paper presents a novel methodology construct specification equations, which allows one to ascertain from the lawful behavior of items what an instrument is measuring. (Author/PN)

Discusses the problems of readers' different responses to essay test passages and the implications for the subsequent writing assignment. Describes a model of the writing assessment episode and discusses four generalizations about writing task interpretation. (HTH)

Describes a study of the influence of wording changes in essay questions on test performance. Results did not support the hypothesis that such changes would affect writer performance. (HTH)

The author discusses the complex nature of assessing bilingual special education students, recommends a textbook on the topic, notes the contributions of J. Mercer's System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment, and cites the need for special educators to focus on the issue. (CL)

Cloze-based evaluations of reading comprehension present room for a greater amount of subjectivity in rating reader response. A study was designed to ascertain the nature of potential subjectivity within a single-rater's ratings of cloze-based assessments of reading comprehension. (DF)

A mathematics item on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was found to be faulty and received wide publicity. A detailed investigation into its mathematical and psychometric properties is presented. It was found that the problem could be considered ambiguous but that almost no one noticed the ambiguity. (Author/JKS)

The uses of a well-made standardized test are identified: as an assessment tool to help students identify their strengths, to improve learning programs, to help colleges select students, to gauge the learning of academic skills, and as an early warning system. (MLW)

A systematic method for compromise between absolute and relative examination standards is proposed. The passing score is assumed to be related to expected pass rate through a simple linear function. Results define a function relating the percentage of successful candidates given a specified passing score to the passing score. (Author/DWH)