This study investigated measurement integrity of the Inventory of Parent Experiences, using parents of 66 intact families, half including children with handicaps. Results were unsupportive of the hypothesis that subscale and subsubscale scores have requisite measurement characteristics. Results with IPE total scores were more favorable and…

A table is provided for determining the frequency of occurrence of Verbal-Performance discrepancies on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) in profiles of high Intelligence Quotient children. Warnings are offered regarding the adverse effect of subtest substitution or omission when administering the WISC-R to highly…

The Evaluation and Programming System: Assessment Level I (EPS-I) was evaluated for effectiveness in developing individual education goals among handicapped or at-risk infants and young children. Early interventionists (N=48) used EPS-I and other instruments to develop goals which were compared. Findings indicate EPS-I goals were functional,…

Presents an overview of current data gathering and analytical techniques for author cocitation analysis (ACA). Highlights include selection of the author set; retrieval of cocited author counts; multivariate analyses, including multidimensional scaling; data display techniques; an example for macroeconomics; interpretation and validation of…

Educational Testing Service's (ETS) international testing of student achievement (1988) was supported by politicians seeking simple answers, but results were badly flawed and pointless. ETS emphasized global comparisons among countries on a single achievement scale, using an arbitrary formula heavily weighted toward computation; actual questions…

A study investigated the performance of 6 successive medical school classes on 80 standardized-patient case examinations, looking for effects of student or standardized-patient gender on scores. Results showed no interaction of any practical consequence. Cases with gender-related concern (e.g., breast problems) also did not differentiate between…

A recent RAND study questions the reliability of judgments used in portfolio evaluation in Vermont Schools. Researchers at the Center for Research in Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing are developing guidelines to determine whether the new performance-based assessments are valid and reliable. Emerging CRESST criteria concerning testing…

Examined factor structure of Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL) and its internal consistency for 128 high school and 145 college students. Means were higher than those of adults who reported never considering suicide. Goodness of Fit Index was poor, suggesting that factors in teenagers' reasons for living are different from those of adults.…

Students generally do better on outcome-based performance tasks than on domain-specific tasks. Results on performance tasks must be interpreted in the context of instruction or guidance provided before or during their administration. Reliability is sometimes questionable, since teachers are highly influenced by students' overall academic…

Women's lower scores on standardized admissions tests were examined from the perspective of consequential validity using data from the Law School Admissions Test. Data do not show that women disproportionately remove themselves from the applicant pool and do not suggest that a consequence of lower scores is application to less prestigious schools.…

Describes what a computer-adaptive test (CAT) is, examines its roots, and points out some of the challenges this approach to assessment presents. (Author/VWL)

Monotonic logic requires reexamination of the entire logic string when there is a contradiction. Nonmonotonic logic allows the user to withdraw conclusions in the face of contradiction without harm to the logic string, which has considerable application to the field of information searching. Artificial intelligence models and neural networks based…

Education remains heavily shackled by punitive, test-driven reform. Despite reasonable alternatives, testing increasingly drives educational accountability and reform. Standardization of direct writing assessments promotes scoring reliability and facilitates educational comparisons and rankings. However, standardized writing is not good writing,…

The Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI) focuses on adults, their significant relationships, and current relations with family of origin. Three studies are reported to (1) create the DSI; (2) improve theoretical focus, item content, and psychometric properties; and (3) test validity. Factor analyses are presented and results discussed; test…

Identifies four additional data patterns that discriminate among five theories of students' expected grades/teacher ratings correlation. The presence of all four of these markers in student ratings data is consistent with the theory that the correlation is due to an unwanted influence of instructors' grading leniency. (MMU)