This paper provides a theoretical discussion of educational program evaluation. Psychometric theory and developmental psychology are compared as they pertain to the testing of children. The nature of change in childhood makes it necessary to examine the assumptions and goals related to the testing of children as a means of evaluating educational…

The conference theme was Testing--Then and Now, based upon the assumption that psychometrists should review their origins and look forward to their future. In the area of intelligence testing, Nancy Bayley discussed the research that re-assessed previous concepts of the nature of intellectual growth and decline. Thelma Thurstone discussed new…

The Texas Environmental Adaptation Measure (TEAM), a four-part instrument, is designed to assess children's adaptive behavior as it relates to their sociocultural and emotional environments. TEAM is intended to determine the eligibility of these children for special education classes and to provide information for individualizing their…

The Adult Career Planning Inventory (ACPI) was designed to elicit from clients their self-perceptions of aptitudes, interests, past experience, physical abilities, and education, and to compare these perceptions with actual job requirements as taken from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). The ACPI is a reusable eight-page booklet…

To meet the instructional needs of the hundreds of children who speak the Ladin and Surselvan Raeto-Romance dialects of Switzerland, spelling categories pertinent to the two dialects were established based on the spelling test concept of Rudolf Mueller. Following classic test analysis procedures, three diagnostic dictation tests (one in Ladin, two…

The College Outcome Measures Project (COMP) was organized to design, develop, validate, and disseminate assessment instruments and procedures to measure and evaluate the knowledge and skills that undergraduate students are expected to acquire as a result of general or liberal education programs, as well as those important to effective functioning…

This conference focuses upon various aspects of testing within a society, and upon technical advances in measurement. Philip H. DuBois's paper deals with China, a society dominated by tests, from 1115 BC--1905 AD. Donald W. Fiske discusses the effect of testing on the individual in modern America in his paper, "The Subject Looks at…

Events of this conference on military testing centered on (1) an open panel meeting and discussion on the testing of Project 100,000 personnel (potential rejectees accepted under new standards); and (2) over two dozen papers dealing with specific aptitude and proficiency tests, a comparison of marginal and control Naval personnel on biographical…

Random polygons were used as stimuli in a two-choice multiple discrimination learning paradigm designed to test individual learning ability. A nonverbal test was developed in order to avoid the cultural and racial bias which, according to the author, is inherent in verbal tests. Information processing rate (IPR) was used as the measure of learning…

The development and testing of an instrument used to measure the five major societal functions of schooling are described. These functions, as defined by William Spady, include: custody or control over students, course selection, student evaluation and certification, instructional processes, and socialization. The following sequence of events took…

Part of a system by which local education agency (LEA) personnel may evaluate secondary and postsecondary vocational education programs, this third of eight components focuses on assessment of student career interests. Procedures covered include determination of the student population to be surveyed, selection of the instrument, and discrepancy…

Distractors, the incorrect responses to an item on a multiple-choice test, should be designed to create confusion in the minds of some students and to permit a competent student to be able to see that they are wrong. It is possible, by close scrutiny, to isolate the sources of this confusion and, by looking at a statistical analysis, to find out…

Multiple-choice standardized achievement tests of English vocabulary and reading comprehension and of mathematics were administered to samples of 592 grade eight students and 615 grade five students. Two forms of each test unit were prepared. The control groups took forms containing items with four responses, while the experimental groups took…

The 13 papers compiled in the document serve to meet the needs of personnel serving the mentally retarded and can also be adapted for use by educators not directly serving the handicapped. They discuss relevant information and procedures that can be used to help the mentally retarded become well oriented to the working world and to themselves. The…

This paper presents a preliminary model for a table of specifications for Language Curricula Development Center Language Arts materials. Description of the development of the Criterion-Referenced Unit Achievement Tests, including the tests' design, precedes the recommended model. The model categorizes the main components and behaviors of the SCDC…