This issue of Measurement in Education is presented in the form of a dialogue between Dr. Robert L. Ebel, Distinguished Professor of Educational Measurement at Michigan State University, and Dr. Samual A. Livingston, Program Research Scientist at the Educational Testing Service. Alternative views on some aspects of the use of tests in assessing…

This paper reviews the research in the area of achievement tests. The findings indicate: (1) there is little evidence that educational decision makers use the large amount of test data collected; (2) a larger number of tests are being required of students for personal certification; (3) reasons for the lack of application of test results include…

From 1974 through 1978, three methods of assessing Scottish high school students' (O level) English achievement were studied: (1) Ordinary (O level) examinations; (2) assessment of writing skills (folio assessment); and (3) criterion referenced tests developed by the Scottish Council for Research in Education (SCRE) to measure the objectives of…

It has been proposed that the same type of aptitude and ability tests required for initial job entry be used to indicate whether an individual can continue to perform effectively in that job. A review of the nature of such tests indicates that they would be inappropriate for use in retirement decisions. A proficiency test of the kind used at the…

Sex restrictiveness and sex bias in occupational interest scales are reviewed, and some alternative solutions are briefly discussed. Traditionally, it was thought that sex restrictive interest inventories merely reflected the inherent differences between males and females. The author defines sex restrictiveness according to the degree that the…

Intended primarily for secondary school administrators, teachers, and counselors, this booklet summarizes the information available, as of 1965, about the ways special coaching or tutoring may affect students' scores on the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Coaching refers to the variety of methods used in attempting to increase, in…

A review of court cases, involving the use of various standardized tests, highlights the kinds of test validity and the interpretation by the courts of test fairness in setting personnel selection standards. Guidelines established by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) are shown to support the use of predictive validity in…

Racial attitude questions from national surveys such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are being used to show that progress has been made toward interracial harmony in this country. However, there is reason to worry about conclusions from such measures, because they may indicate only progress on learning the socially…

An experimental design was employed to assess the impact of standardized tests on 47 second grade Irish teachers' judgments of their 1,566 students. Teachers receiving test results showed greater shifts in their ratings of students than teachers not receiving test results. However, these shifts tended to be in the positive direction and for only a…

The organization of nine selected cognitive abilities from Guilford's structure-of-intellect model (SI) was explored in a sample of Spanish-English bilingual students. One hundred and ninety-four seventh and eighth graders were assigned to take a battery of nine cognitive ability tests in Spanish or English. The nine tests measured convergent…

This document begins with an outline of events seen as noteworthy in the search for fairness in general and includes a brief discussion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, and the Tower Amendment (Title VII). These events are placed in perspective with recent events which have impacted the notion of…

This two-day conference heard from leaders on national trends in health manpower, with particular emphasis on the granting of equivalency credit for relevant experience. Presentations were made under these areas: opening doors to health careers, national trends in allied health testing, innovative approaches to allied health equivalency testing in…

The purpose of this study was to explore the usefulness of the Rasch test analysis model for providing consistent scale statistics between content-referenced and norm-referenced tests across school districts. A number of content-referenced tests were created to assess student performance relative to basic skills goals identified in reading and…

The purpose of this paper is to outline and explain the evaluation system used by the Rhode Island Department of Education to measure the effectiveness of compensatory education programs. An exposition of how relevant background, program and financial information is collected is presented. In addition, a delineation is made of the methods…

In order to determine whether or not systematic desensitization or hypnosis have any effect in alleviating the test anxiety of community college students, 30 Massasoit Community College student volunteers were matched for GPA and assigned to one of three treatment groups: (1) a systematic desensitization group, in which subjects listened to tape…