The purposes of this study were to: (1) develop a valid and reliable instrument for direct recording of leadership behavioral characteristics of nursery school children; (2) develop a valid and reliable scale for teachers' rating of leadership behavioral characteristics of nursery school children; and (3) determine the degree of correlation…

Decisions based on the Fluharty Preschool Screening Tests and the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test (and their subtests) were compared to a validity criterion of passing or failing the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development for 182 children aged 36-47 months. Validity differences were found that depended on test and subtest content.…

Performance of 100 college freshmen on the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery, Part II, Tests of Achievement, were analyzed by subtests and cluster scores to determine appropriateness for assessing achievement of handicapped students. Minor inversions in item order and pronounced ceiling effects on all subtests yielded lowered subtest and…

Using a counterbalanced order, 34 learning disabled students were given the Peabody Individual Achievement Test and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests. When scores in reading recognition and comprehension subtests were compared, Peabody scores were higher, indicating that fewer students were certifiable as learning disabled by Peabody scores than…

Results of the Nowicki Locus of Control Scale indicated that the instrument did not differentiate between mildly handicapped Australian children with cerebral palsy (N=85) integrated into regular schools and their nondisabled peers (N=1391) nor was it a significant correlate of academic or social performance for the target group. (Author/CB)

Discusses current issues in measuring library effectiveness, including rapid technological changes and increasing obsolescence in librarians' competencies; increased pressure for accountability; tools to help libraries become what they determine they should be rather than conforming to national standards; and how to determine the validity and…

Eighty-four hearing-impaired postsecondary students were involved in a study of the criterion validity and reliability of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf rating scales for assessment of contextual speech intelligibility. Results revealed generally high overall validity and reliability coefficients, though write-down procedures were a…

Discusses the issue of oral communication tests through an account of an oral test administered to nearly 1,000 students at Yarmouk University Language Center. The ways in which the institution attempted to overcome problems in the oral test's feasibility, validity, and reliability are presented. (Author/CB)

A visual analogue mood scale was developed that included an option indicating subjects didn't understand the meaning of an adjective in an item. The item content significantly affected responses, raising questions about the adequacy of recently proposed affective taxonomies that were based on restricted samples of emotion-descriptive adjectives.…

Examined assessment practices in 54 model programs for early education of handicapped children (ages prenatal through six years). Results showed only 19 tests were used by at least five programs; only one device was used by over one-half. Although technical adequacy was reportedly an important factor in selection, analysis revealed only three…

A 12-item acculturation scale developed for Hispanics correlated highly with the respondents' generation, length of residence in the United States, age at arrival, ethnic self-identification, and with an acculturation scale. Language use, media preferences, and ethnic social relations were the three factors accounting for 67.6 percent of the total…

This study tested the multifaceted, hierarchical structure of self- concept (SC) against alternative models and determined whether academic SC can be discriminated from academic grades. Results supported the multidimensional interpretation of SC and demonstrated that general SC could be interpreted as distinct from but correlated with academic SC.…

Presents major stages in design and development of criterion referenced tests (CRT) with emphasis on differences between CRT construction and norm-referenced test construction. Discussion covers test interpretation; test theory; preparation for test construction (hierarchical analysis, item type selection, and choosing number of items); test…

Reviews a secondary school version of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) that focuses on two of the primary language skills: listening and reading. Subtest includes a variety of tasks measuring semantic, syntactic, and higher-level reading comprehension abilities. (NKA)

Criticizes methodology and findings reported in the "Consequences" article, particularly in regard to disparities in characteristics of the samples, validity of the measures, and interpretation of results. (NH)