Suggests improving test validity by deciding in advance the relative importance of each competence, and asking a colleague to read over the items and comment on any discovered ambiguities. Suggests increasing test reliability with item analyses. Discusses criteria for choosing objective or essay tests. (MLH)

Based on a PhD thesis submitted to the University of Iowa, 1967.

The paper presents 12 steps in developing and validating criterion referenced tests (CRTs). The author emphasizes the need to closely examine the test's stated purpose and trace the test through the 12 steps in order to find CRTs that are useful rather than useless. Examples are given for each step: preparing or selecting objectives; developing…

Procedures for conducting functional level testing have been available for use by practitioners for some time. However, the Title I Evaluation and Reporting System (TIERS), developed in response to the educational amendments of 1974 to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), has provided the impetus for widespread adoption of this…

The study developed a 12 item Likert type scaled answer sheet, associated questions regarding social situations where the handicapped and nonhandicapped might interact, and a posterboard picture for determining the attitudes of primary grade students toward other handicapped children. Interviews, observations, a review of the literature,…

The effects of students taking different levels of the same standardized achievement test were assessed by administering two levels of the same test to each student. The functional level of the test was taken by all students. The second level of testing was randomly assigned at the adjacent higher or lower level of the test. Functional level…

This paper reports the results of a known groups validation study of several measures of teacher stress. Role-related stress, task-based stress, and environmental stress comprised the stress measures. Groups of teachers in high schools and junior high schools were selected on an a priori basis using administrative records of reported student…

Test scores that are not perfectly reliable cannot be strictly equated unless they are strictly parallel. This fact implies that tau equivalence can be lost if an equipercentile equating is applied to observed scores that are not strictly parallel. Thirty-six simulated data sets are produced to simulate equating tests with different difficulties…

This fifty-item test is intended for the 'Responsibility' unit of the 'Law in a Free Society' materials published by the California Bar Association. The test was administered as a pre- and post-test to more than 600 grade 11 students. The pre-test data for all students were item-analyzed and the results are made available along with a table of…

Intended to help educators select diagnostic and criterion referenced reading tests for their specific purposes, this book contains reviews of nine individual and three group tests. The reviewed tests were selected for their "importance" from a list of 34 and were reviewed by experts according to their descriptions of content, test development,…

Arguments against competency testing surface continually, and classic counter-arguments reoccur. Nevertheless, minimum competency testing and other accountability efforts have much public support. Those claiming that the tests are not relevant or do not have predictive validity, also say they are coachable and biased. Answers are given to these…

The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between the unreliability of difference scores and the power of tests of significance in an attempt to determine the validity of the paradox for the measurement of change presented by Overall and Woodward: that the power of tests of significance is maximum when the reliability of the…

The construction and evaluation of the Perception of Social Closeness Scale (PSCS) is described. The PSCS, designed to measure classroom social distance, is modeled after the Classroom Social Distance Scale and is constructed in a manner to be used with classroom teachers. Following a description of the scale's development, items were selected to…

An alternate-choice test item is a simple declarative sentence, one portion of which is given with two different wordings. For example, "Foundations like Ford and Carnegie tend to be (1) eager (2) hesitant to support innovative solutions to educational problems." The examinee's task is to choose the alternative that makes the sentence…