One hundred and three students from the 1985 graduating class of Hightstown (New Jersey) High School took New Jersey's College Basic Skills Placement Test (CBSPT) after entering two-year and four-year colleges in New Jersey. The 103, who represented the entire distribution of class ranks, rated themselves fairly accurately on their abilities in…

The licensure of public school personnel in Tennessee is a function of the State Department of Education (SDE). Additional requirements for this certification function were added by the Comprehensive Education Reform Act (Senate Bill Number 1) of the 1984 Tennessee General Assembly. The Act mandated that the SDE use tests to assess the competence…

Criteria for the selection of judges (evaluators) for setting item-based standards involved in tests for which cutting scores must be established are investigated. Focus is on cases in which test standards are based on specialists' judgments concerning the difficulty of test items in tests used to determine who will be awarded a diploma, admitted…

The book is the outgrowth of two studies: a cross-sectional analysis comparing the experiences and tested achievement of high school seniors over the decade 1972 to 1982, and a longitudinal analysis relating cognitive growth (particularly in mathematical skills) of 1980 high school sophomores to their schooling experiences over the period 1980 to…

Information is presented on selecting and applying to graduate management programs, the Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) degree, costs and financial aid, and concerns pertaining to minorities, women, and foreign students. Additionally, key facts about specific graduate schools of management, a description of the Graduate Management…

A group of highly regarded schools in affluent suburban areas was divided into two groups: those judged to have a traditional orientation and those judged to have a more experimental orientation, in terms of course and program structure. A review of the mean Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) from the 1966, 1969, 1973, and 1976 graduating classes from…

Summaries of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score statistics (means, standard deviations, and the number of students taking the test) are presented for students grouped according to testing years (for 1956-57 to 1975-76) and according to high school classes (from 1966-67 to 1975-76). For recent years, mean scores for geographical regions and for…

Greatly expanded programs of financial aid based on need have made it possible for large numbers of low income students to attend college. Since test scores have high correlation with family income, one might wonder whether or not the increase in low income students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test has caused the decline in mean scores, which…

This symposium included four papers about the administration of the evaluation of Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I projects. The first speaker, Janice K. Anderson, presented a summary of efforts to coordinate evaluations so as to promote sufficient uniformity for generalizations across local programs, but permitting maximim local…

The effects of test content reflecting black or white culture, on the performance of college-bound students of both races was examined. Eighty-five culture-specific items were developed for use in the English Usage and Social Studies Reading subtests of the ACT (American College Testing) Assessment Program. Items were administered as four separate…

The criterion-oriented problem of test bias and fairness in selection is compared to the construct-oriented problem of comparability of test scores in cross-cultural research. These problems are shown to have important similarities, and their studies may supplement each other. In a formulation of psychometric criteria for the comparability of test…

This symposium consists of five papers and presents some recent developments in adaptive testing which have applications to several military testing problems. The overview, by James R. McBride, defines adaptive testing and discusses some of its item selection and scoring strategies. Item response theory, or item characteristic curve theory, is…

The conference is divided into three sections: (1) constructing examinations so that they will be valid measures of important functions; (2) defining the nature of the verbal factor as used in aptitude test batteries; and (3) establishing the type of norms most useful and important for the interpretation of achievement test scores. Papers are…

This textbook is intended for use in an introductory course in the use of tests in schools and colleges. The book is divided into five parts: (1) history and philosophy--educational measurement, historical perspectives; Measurement and the process of education; (2) classroom test development--what should achievement tests measure?; How should…

The achievement gap is clearly visible throughout the school years, from grade-school test scores through high school graduation and higher education. It divides American Indian, Asian, Black, Latino, and White students, and it divides the economically advantaged from the disadvantaged regardless of their race/ethnicity. Under the federal No Child…