After reviewing the information that teachers and other decision makers need to have about student achievement and some recent advances in the theory and practice of reading assessment, the author makes a number of recommendations for improving assessment programs. These include: do less massive, broad-band testing, but improve the reliability and…

Cognitive and conditioning models of cue-controlled relaxation as well as the relative efficacy of applied relaxation and cue-controlled relaxation in alleviating test anxiety were investigated. Test anxious subjects (N=18) received either applied relaxation, cognitive cue-controlled relaxation, or conditioned cue-controlled relaxation. Between…

The paper reviews the literature on the problem of testing Spanish-speaking children with North American Instruments, and suggests some solutions to the problem. In the first section, studies done with Spanish-speaking children are considered; studies of other cultures follow; and a final section probes the issue of test bias. (Author/SBH)

This document contains abstracts of papers from a workshop resulting from events stemming from the Office of Education report, A Look at Women in Education: Issues and Answers for HEW. This report charged that a particular career interest inventory was sex-biased, but no operational definition of sex bias was given, the issues involved were not…

Models proposed by Cleary, Thorndike, Cole, Linn, Einhorn and Bass, Darlington, and Gross and Su for analyzing bias in the use of tests in a selection strategy are surveyed. Several additional models are also introduced. The purpose is to describe, compare, contrast, and evaluate these models while extracting such useful ideas as may be found in…

Subjects are asked to answer six questions, partly with a frequency and partly by marking a verbally anchored scale with five categories. Some univariate and multivariate analyses are performed to elucidate the relations between variables with the two different modes of response. Although there are similarities in results for the two types of…

This study investigated the effect of a linguistically based coaching program (with special attention given to the syntactic and semantic requirements of standardized language arts achievement tests) on the performance of selected black high school students on objective tests. The five subjects, one male and four female, were high school juniors…

To assess a child's communicative ability, it is important to develop not only measures of his understanding of vocabulary, but of his understanding of the syntax of language: patterns of words, regularities, and relationships of words in a sentence. Controlled test situations should be established in which the child receives minimal cues from the…

This study was an investigation into the relative predictive abilities of two types of test anxiety measures. Galvanic skin response (GSR) levels obtained during achievement testing and a self-report measure of test anxiety, the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC), were used as predictors of IQ and achievement test performances of 119 fifth and…

Four conceptually different variables in reading: (1) knowledge gained (new information), (2) amount comprehended (degree of understanding), (3) reading aptitude (differences between individuals), and (4) reading improvement (within individual changes as a result of treatment) are discussed. Existing measures of reading comprehension are evaluated…

These guidelines deal specifically with the context in which the measurement of interests occurs and the interpretive materials which are made available to test users. They are classified and discussed in three categories: guidelines intended to inform the test user of possible factors influencing a sex-biased response on interest inventories;…

One of a series of special reports on current trends in school policies and programs, this publication is designed to provide school practitioners and others concerned with education with current information on problems which are the core of the constantly changing education scene. This special report focuses on reading programs throughout the…

This paper discusses college admissions tests and their tendency to discriminate against blacks and Chicanos. Evidence to support this thesis is presented from two perspectives--the level of reading difficulty of the tests and the restricted dialectal characteristic of the language used in the tests. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)-Verbal…

The 1967 meeting of the Western Regional Conference on Testing Problems dealt with evaluation and educational change. The following speeches were presented: (1) "The Atypical Student" by Carole A. Leland; (2) "Citizenship Assessment" by Vincent N. Campbell; (3) "Educational Criteria and the Cheshire-Cat" by Scarvia B. Anderson; (4) "Are…

The 1969 Invitational Conference on Testing Problems had as its theme "Toward a Theory of Achievement Measurement." Papers presented in Session I, The Nature of Educational Achievement, were: (1) "Concepts of Achievement and Proficiency" by William E. Coffman; (2) "The Functions and Uses of Educational Measurement" by Winton H. Manning; (3)…