Critical issues addressed in the literature with regard to teacher evaluation, appraisal instruments, and their use are reviewed. The focus of the study is to provide ideas and suggestions on improving the evaluation process, something best achieved by matching the appropriate instrument with that which it purports to measure. (SLD)

Discusses the plaintiffs' arguments, the state's responses, and the specific findings in the context of major themes of "GI Forum v. Texas Education Agency," which found that the Texas graduation test was valid and reliable and met applicable professional standards, including motive and opportunity to learn. (SLD)

Draws seven conclusions for professionals who administer state assessment programs from the "GI Forum V. Texas Education Agency" ruling. These conclusions are grouped into observations about test development and observations about test use. Discusses some implications for test use in other states. (SLD)

Discusses the implications of the "GI Forum v. Texas Education Agency" (2000) decision supporting the use of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills for other state assessment programs. Notes that the legal success of the state test in Texas was not due merely to good fortune, but to the test's adherence to legally defensible principles.…

Analyzes S. Bauer's article on the use of achievement tests to judge school quality to demonstrate the importance of logic, philosophy (especially conceptual analysis), and insights based on anecdotal evidence for educational research and policy making. Emphasizes the place for logical reasoning and anecdotal evidence in the empirical enterprise…

Summarizes the creation and results of the 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Arts Assessment Report Card. Discusses the creation and the many improvements made to the NAEP Assessment, particularly the Arts Assessment. Discusses the impact of the assessment. (SC)

Used samples of 142 management and 123 nursing undergraduates to evaluate the psychometric properties and factor structure of the newly developed Form S (short form) of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (G. Watson and E. Glaser, 1964, 1994). Results provide only limited support for Form S, and further refinement is suggested. (SLD)

Describes a program used by two New Jersey educators to help teachers understand and use their state's standards and test specifications to improve classroom instruction and raise achievement. Suggests it is important for teachers to understand the entirety of each subject and where state test content fits within each area so that they can align…

This National Reading Conference Policy Brief provides information related to high stakes reading tests and reading assessment. High stakes reading tests are those with highly consequential outcomes for students, teachers, and schools. These outcomes may include student promotion or retention, student placement in reading groups, school funding…

This report compares two approaches to incentive motivation in 82 college juniors and seniors, average age 21 years. One method uses will as a motivator; the other method focuses on skill or effective strategy use for enhancing recall and understanding of a particular body of information. In the first approach, a semiweekly test or spotquiz was…

This paper describes a process used to assess the technical competency of non-direct line candidates for managerial positions in computer specialties. The Training and Experience (T&E) qualifying test, a multi-method approach combining task-based, computer scorable evaluations of training and experience with multiple-choice batteries, was used as…

This study was conducted to investigate the construct validity of scores on the Personal Preferences Self-Description Questionnaire (PPSDQ), a measure of Jungian types. Confirmatory factor analysis methods were used to investigate the structures underlying PPSDQ responses of 641 university students. The model fit statistics were generally…

This paper presents six steps in test construction generally recommended by measurement textbook authors. The focus is primarily on paper-and-pencil achievement tests as used by class instructions, although the discussion touches on the construction of other types of assessment. The six steps are: (1) determine the test purpose; (2) determine the…

The Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT) was used as a screening instrument to predict Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III) scores of 94 students referred for psychoeducational evaluations. Although the correlation coefficient between the K-BIT IQ Composite and the WISC-III Full Scale IQ was 0.771 for the entire…

A study investigated whether imitation plays a significant role in the acquisition of grammar. Three 6- to 8-year-old hearing-impaired children were administered the Grammatical Analysis of Elicited Language--Simple Sentence Level Test (GAEL), which is designed to evaluate hearing-impaired children's use of grammatical aspects of spoken and/or…