Research on the lack of correlation between standardized tests and school district goals has suggested that district goals might be better met by supplementing standardized tests with district-made criterion-referenced testing systems. This article reports on the development of such a system, the Academic Learning Progress Assessment System…

The purpose of this paper is to document existing research on the test performance of handicapped people with respect to admissions and other similar tests. In addition, the psychometric characteristics of these tests when used with handicapped people are reported. Though much more data needs to be collected, several observations are made.…

This paper, as an illustration of the procedures involved in a cooperative effort, describes a project in which the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) designed and developed a minimum standards test in collaboration with a large urban school district in California. The activity described focuses on the writing sample included in the test. The…

The Georgia Teacher Certification Testing Program includes 28 criterion-referenced tests designed by National Evaluation Systems, Inc. (Amherst, Massachusetts) and covering 28 different teaching, leadership, and service fields. This publication offers an overview of the test development process, test validation procedures, test administration…

The paper reviews the ways in which the cloze testing procedure measures the reading comprehension skills of students in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. The construction and scoring of the test and the interpretation of the scores are discussed and the reliability and validity of the cloze procedure for testing reading skills…

Intended as an aid to researchers who must decide which measurement techniques to use in the study of organizational communication, this paper describes and analyzes three of the most widely used data collection instruments: the Communication Audit Survey Questionnaire (CAS), the Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ), and the…

A study examined the relationship of native language and level of English proficiency to the structure of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Using all of the information provided by various responses to the test's items (the four alternatives, omitted, and not reached), the items' interrelations were analyzed by three-way…

The determination of appropriate cut scores is a critical step in the development of licensing and certification examinations. Passing point methodologies based on the estimation of item difficulties are underlain by the estimation of the probability of a correct response to items by a hypothetically minimally competent candidate. The Angoff…

Psychometric properties of the Alcohol Behavior, Attitude, and Awareness Inventory (ABAA Inventory) were assessed using data collected in 1987 from 799 university students. Results suggested that the ABAA Inventory was internally-consistent (alpha = .82) and stable over time (test-retest coefficient = .77). Subscale alphas ranged from .45 to .92,…

The problems of validity and fairness involved in multiple-choice critical thinking tests can be lessened by using verbal reports of examinees' thinking during the process of developing such tests in order to retain only those items which rely on critical thinking skills to obtain the correct answer. Multiple-choice testing can lead to unfair…

A prototype low inference observation instrument to measure minimal teaching competencies of teaching candidates was deductively developed. Focus is on determining if observers could be trained to use the observation instrument with a high degree of reliability and validity. The instrument, entitled Classroom Observation and Assessment Scale for…

Tests to assess problem-solving ability being provided for the Air Force are described, and some details on the development and validation of these computer-administered diagnostic achievement tests are discussed. Three measurement approaches were employed: (1) sequential problem solving; (2) context-free assessment of fundamental skills and…

The Test Analysis Package (TAP) consists of three microcomputer programs that edit, score, summarize, and analyze student test data. Features of the TAP system include: (1) an editor that allows creation of a student test data file without the use of a separate word processor; (2) a scoring mechanism that can score a test data file of 999 students…

This paper proposes that instructional validity (i.e., the extent to which teachers actually teach the skills that are tested) should be part of the test development process. The development of a district-wide ninth-grade math exam for General Mathematics I (GMI) in the Charleston County School District, South Carolina, is used to illustrate how a…

Early screening programs to determine learning problems in preschool children are evaluated. A review of early identification literature indicates considerable difficulty in describing screening results and determining when a screening program accurately identifies those students believed to be "at risk." The authors propose several…