A student may be so unlike other students that his/her aptitude test score fails to be a completely appropriate measure. We consider the problem of using the student's pattern of multiple-choice aptitude test answers to decide whether his/her score is an appropriate ability measure. (Author/CTM)

Reports that the Estes Attitude Scale suffers from the influence of cultural biases that make it inadequate to measure attitude about reading among low-income, Black students in grades three through seven in the rural southern United States. (FL)

A liberal interpretation of Section 151 of Public Law 93-380, to implement effective local evaluation of Title I programs, is supported. Weaknesses are cited: (1) nationwide impact data, (2) unsound aggregation of Title I achievement gains, and (3) lack of consideration of alternative evaluation methods. (MH)

Maintains that intelligence tests contribute little to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of instructional interventions for children. Suggests that intelligence tests are not useful in making differential diagnostic and classification determinations for children with mild learning problems and that such testing is not a cost-beneficial…

Using a sci-fi matchmaking scenario to illustrate the fallibility of technology, this article discusses the practice of reducing a student to a series of test scores for gifted identification. The limits of testing are addressed, and student performance and behavior are urged as additional categories for identifying aptitude and achievement.…

Examines the organization of the extended project that is part of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) A Level Business Studies examination. Provides a timetable for implementing the project. Includes student evaluations of the project. (LS)

Thirty-six children, aged four-five, completed four vocabulary measures: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised, Picture Vocabulary subtest of the Test of Oral Language Development, Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, and Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test. Only moderate correlations were found among these tests, implying that a…

Investigates the effects on multiple choice test performance of altering the order and placement of questions and responses. Shows that changing the response pattern appears to alter significantly the apparent degree of difficulty. Response patterns become more dissimilar under certain types of response alterations. (LS)

The passage of Public Law 99-457 has both quantitative and qualitative implications for assessment. Educators working with infants and young children must become more familiar with assessment strategies and limitations including psychometrically sound assessment of complex and controversial family variables, and health and environmental risk…

The reliability of derived measures from 4 cognitive paradigms was studied using 19 Navy enlisted men (aged between 18 and 24 years). The paradigms were: graphemic and phonemic analysis; semantic memory retrieval; lexical decision making; and letter classification. Results indicate that derived scores may have low reliability. (SLD)

This study delineated procedures for cross-cultural adaptation and operationalization of adaptive behavior in individuals with mental retardation, culturally adapted the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale, and investigated the validity of the resulting instrument. The study concluded that the domain of adaptive behavior can be successfully applied…

This review of the Test of Early Written Language concludes that the test succeeds in identifying students who are below their peers in writing and in measuring long-term gains in written language achievement; but its format makes it difficult to document specific strengths and weaknesses and its reliability; and validity have not been…

The process used in Ohio to reform the state dental licensing examination and incorporate a nonpatient (simulated) clinical procedure is described and the results summarized. Findings focus on the degree to which results of the new testing procedures differentiate dental students by class rank. (MSE)

Analysis of scores of 118 visually impaired children on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scales of Intelligence (Revised) found a consistent response pattern suggesting that the verbal as well as the performance tests provide useful assessment information. (Author/DB)

A study involving 102 high school students (49 males and 53 females) from Taiwan revealed that the order of response scale labels had a primacy effect on subjects' choices of the alternatives in Likert-type attitude scales. Practical implications of the response-order effects for measurement are discussed. (SLD)