The investigation studied the effects of different methods of conveying test instructions on the performance of 54 deaf children (6 to 8 years old) on pattern recognition tasks. Ss were randomly assigned to one of three methods of conveying test instructions: simultaneous communication method, pantomime method, and demonstration method. Ss were…

Certain testing procedures will overcome some of the problems associated with the use of essay tests. Essay tests may not validly indicate achievement because the questions included in the test may not fairly represent instructional content. Reliability may be a problem because of variations in examinee response in different situations, in test…

The premise that there are no valid and reliable psychological tests for use with Indochinese refugees is discussed. The history of the use of tests in the United States has been promulgated as being beneficial to the minority group members exposed to them without revealing their underlying discriminatory uses. Only the System of Multicultural…

This criticism of writing competency tests questions both the efficacy of a test developed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the reliance of individual states on the products of private testmakers. The paper suggests that a hidden curriculum is being developed by independent and semi-independent organizations that…

Latent trait test score theory is discussed primarily in terms of Birnbaum's three-parameter logistic model, and with some reference to the Rasch model. Equations and graphic illustrations are given for item characteristic curves and item information curves. An example is given for a hypothetical 20-item adaptive test, showing cumulative results…

Confidence Weighting (CW), after Ebel, and Multiple Responding (MR), after Coombs, are compared empirically to determine which improved test reliability more in the case of a course pretest derived from the final examination. It was hypothesized that MR, which purportedly measures partial knowledge, would be more effective than CW, which measures…

There exist special problems in testing first-grade children. Orally administered yes-no tests reduce the problems found in the other types, but they have their own drawbacks. A solution to some of these drawbacks is the use of the matched-pair scoring technique. For each "yes" item on the test there is included a "reversed" or…

Developing practical achievement tests for use at the primary-grade level is a difficult task. Some problems encountered appear to be resolved by using verbally administered yes-no tests. But such tests are criticized as having a low reliability because they offer only two choices. Two modifications of the yes-no test have been proposed to…

A pretest-posttest design for measuring the effects of educational programs uses comparison groups consisting of pupils like those in the treatment group but not getting that particular treatment. Although the design is geared primarily to evaluation of Title I programs in large cities, it should also apply to other situations. The plan for…

The teaching performance test is a recently developed assessment technique designed to sharpen our teacher competence evaluation procedures. It assesses a teacher's ability to promote learner mastery of prespecified instructional objectives during a relatively short lesson designed by the teacher. The principal contributions of this paper are the…

Although emphatically not against the concept of educational accountability, the National Education Association (NEA) feels that a redirection is needed in the implementation of such a system. Because of error, especially in testing minority and poor children, accountability programs should never use test results as the major source of data but…

This overview of measurement practices in early childhood education discusses some of the basic issues and concerns of both researchers and practitioners. Although techniques for the measurement of young children's behavior received primary attention, procedures for measuring parent and teacher behavior are also discussed. Trends in measurement…

The persistent problems in foreign language testing are considered under four headings: (1) validity, (2) scope, (3) efficiency, and (4) the problem of how tests relate to the wider context of instruction. The first consists of insuring that the measurements and assessments obtained reflect what they are intended to reflect. The problem of scope…

Eight graduate students were used as experimenters in this study to assess the effects of experimentally induced experimenter outcome bias with respect to selected suprasegmental phenomena (pitch, stress, and terminal intonation) emitted by the experimenters during the instruction reading phase of a behavioral experiment. Experimenters were led to…

Past practice of operationalizing the concept of fakeability of psychological tests is reviewed. The strengths and weaknesses of these indices are discussed in the light of a proposed new definition of fakeability based upon Naylor's model of measurement accuracy. (Author/JKS)