Majority of testing programs is designed to demonstrate the superiority of performance of one student over another rather than evaluate the degree to which an individual has mastered specific skills. The necessity of changing this orientation is discussed. (RW)

This article describes a study in which six academic and 25 shop courses offered in a special vocational high school were grouped into five clusters for each sex. Predictor tests were given to successive cohorts of entering ninth-grade students. (Author)

Psychometric measures such as ability tests and personality and interest inventories have the potential to be misused with ethnic minorities, women, and people with disabilities. Applying them fairly, giving testees opportunities for preparation and practice, and interpreting scores in the context of feedback are recommended. (SK)

Used three studies to examine a diagnostic questionnaire's psychometric properties. Results strongly supported the psychometric properties of the tool. Convergent validity and criterion validity were both supported by meaningful correspondences, and incremental validity was also supported in that the tool yielded more accurate diagnoses when…

Describes the development of a knowledge measure for the evaluation of a proactive training program for suicide postvention and gives analyses of its psychometric properties. Participants showed significant improvement in overall test scores and on several individual items following training. Analysis suggests that the measure has construct…

Examines the generalizability of the Problem Solving Inventory (PSI) through research with Black South African samples. The estimates of the factor structure as well as other reliability and validity estimates provided strong support for the generalizability of the PSI to South African Black college students. The results also provided partial…

This paper describes the Hong Kong development of the Student Adjustment Problems Inventory, a 32-item measure that identifies problems of gifted secondary students in six domains: relationship/ability concerns, unchallenging schoolwork, intense involvement, concerns about being different, parental expectations, and perfectionism. Students'…

Examines the psychometric properties of a set of preliteracy measures modified from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) with a sample of 75 kindergarten students. The results of the analysis support the use of the DIBELS-M measures for identification of kindergarten students who are at-risk for reading failure and for…

A study examined test-retest reliability, practice effects, and relations among normed measures of word identification and spelling and experimental measures of achievement and reading-related cognitive processing in 78 children (ages 6-8) with reading disabilities. There were strong relations between normed measures of decoding and spelling and…

The Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scales were developed to assess self-efficacy for performing helping skills, managing the counseling process, and handling challenging counseling situations. Factor-derived scale scores produced adequate internal consistency and short-term test-retest reliability estimates. Implications for future research and…

Provides specific ideas for using 19 psychometric instruments selected from the gender-related research literature for their value as instructional aids in the communication classroom. Concludes with a number of recommendations and cautions regarding the use of measures as educational tools. (KEH)

The paper notes A. Hore and W. Tryon's support of the developmental position that persons with and without mental retardation of similar mental age show similar cognitive patterns, but suggests that mental age is psychometrically invalid and Piagetian tasks are inappropriate to evaluate this position. An information processing approach is…

Phonological awareness is explored as a process for studying the cognitive deficits of dyslexic children without undermining the assumption of specificity. Discussed are the operation of Matthew effects, the importance of strict psychometric criteria in dyslexia definitions, and recognition that dyslexia represents an arbitrary criterion in a…

Presents an overview of two approaches for the maintenance of standards and explores the psychometric aspects of each. In the first approach, tests items are a fixed factor. In the second, two or more examinations can be constructed in advance. Suggests using the Rasch model to evaluate both approaches. (KO)

The performance of 136 college students at the University of Western Ontario (Canada) on various parameters of two well-known puzzles was compared with performance on a measure of general intelligence and the Hidden Figures Test. An interpretation of the results is provided by Sternberg's experimental subtheory of intelligence. (SLD)