An examination of the principles and techniques of oral testing in British university-level final examinations in modern languages discusses: (1) the shortcomings of present oral testing procedures; (2) the theoretical controversy surrounding the design and value of oral proficiency tests, arising from research in English as a second language…

During the spring semester of 1987, the Alabama State Department of Education conducted a statewide assessment study in which all teachers and principals participated. The classroom performance of teachers was observed, and their teaching competencies were measured on low- and high-inference instruments. These measurements were to be used to…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects of rating errors on the speech rating process, (2) the efficiency and accuracy of informal assessment procedures in determining instructional…

This document accompanies the Conceptual Learning and Development Assessment Series I: Equilateral Triangle, a test constructed to chart the conceptual developemnt of individuals. As a technical manual, it contains information on the rationale, development, standardization, and reliability of the test, as well as essential information and…

This document accompanies Conceptual Learning and Development Assessment Series II: Cutting Tool, a test constructed to chart the conceptual development of individuals. As a technical manual, it contains information on the rationale, development, standardization, and reliability of the test, as well as essential information and statistical data…

This normative study of the American Association on Mental Deficiency (AAMD) Adaptive Behavior Scale--Public School Version was based on 291 Texas public school children divided into 12 categories. The categories were: age, ethnic, or racial group (white or non-white), and assignment to regular classes or special education classes for the educable…

Both on-level and out-of-level tests were administered to third and fifth grade children in order to compare the scaled scores of different level tests of the same testing program and to discover whether the relationship between levels might be distorted by ceiling or floor effects. Only reading tests were used in this study. The Stanford…

There are both strengths and weaknesses of using standardized test scores as a criterion for admission to institutions of higher education. The relative importance of scores is dependent on the institution's degree of selectivity. In general, decision processes and admissions criteria are not well defined. Advantages of test scores include: use of…

The usefulness of the Preschool Preposition Test (PPT) as a cognitive screening and diagnostic tool for handicapped children is demonstrated through results of eight independent studies. The subjects were 354 children and youths, aged two to 20 years, with various handicaps: mentally retarded, autistic-like, moderately emotionally disturbed,…

The Alberta High School Social Studies Achievement Tests are described in terms of the procedures used for test construction and analysis of the norming data. The test construction is explained according to a model for the values clarification process in the social studies, and the evaluation models appropriate for assessing the values…

A five-point school subjects attitude scale, based on the semantic differential technique, was developed after two rounds of factor analysis; it contained 24 bipolar adjectives, each representing one of three factors: evaluation, usefulness, and difficulty. The scale was administered to Alberta (Canada) students in grades 5 and 8, who were…

Faculty from fifteen colleges developed open-ended questions to assess group competence in four areas of learning associated with general education--communication skill, analytic thinking, synthesizing ability, and social/cultural awareness. A secondary purpose was to determine faculty expectations for learning in the general education component…

The development and validation of an instrument designed to measure the quantity of types of instruction delevered to individual students is described. The Classroom Activities Log (CAL) is a teacher-completed record of students' instructional experiences, and may be used to study educational equity questions posed by Elementary Secondary…

The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) is treated in terms of the ability measured, hints for administration and scoring, and questions often asked for each of the nine subtests. Typical profiles are described and analyzed for mentally retarded, kindergarteners, slow learners, culturally disadvantaged, Negroes, good and poor…

High school and college grades are suggested to have the nature of ordinal scales rather than interval scales; hence the median is the appropriate and preferred average, rather than the mean. The use of a median grade point average has some of the major advantages of pass-fail grading. Assuming grades to be ordinal rather than interval data…