As part of a larger longitudinal study, scores of 239 children (ages 1 to 4) with disabilities on the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI) were compared with scores on the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement (Revised) 1 to 3 years later. The BDI scores from children at or above age 2 predicted later achievement scores (mean correlation .74).…

This study used the Assessment Standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics to evaluate the appropriateness and adequacy of selected standardized tests of mathematics achievement as they pertain to students with disabilities. Problems with content validity included inadequate representation of content domains, inappropriate…

Increasingly neuropsychologists are under pressure, particularly in child custody and personal injury litigation, to justify the validity of the tests upon which their assessments are based. Reviews research on the validity of clinical opinions based on tests and concludes that test scores must be used in conjunction with life history and current…

Reviews four decades of research on test interpretation. No clear evidence favors one interpretation modality over another, though clients seem to prefer individual interpretations. Also examines client and counselor variables that alone and in interaction may affect test interpretations. Discusses issues that merit attention by both researchers…

In the attempts to improve teaching and learning through the use of psychometrics and its underlying science, conditions have been set inadvertently that are unlikely to encourage and support learning and self-evaluation. (IAH)

The issue of interpretation of standard test scores of minorities is discussed. The history of the issue is reviewed. The National Academy of Science's decision to reinterpret the scores of minorities is summarized. (YP)

Compares student attitudes toward oral or written tests and the relationship of attitude to performance of 170 students enrolled in the advanced reading course of English as a foreign language at Haifa University (Israel). Students preferred written over oral tests. No meaningful relationship was observed between students' attitudes and test…

Educational assessment concerns inference about student knowledge, skills, and accomplishments. Test theory has evolved in part to address questions of weight, coverage, and import of data. Resulting concepts and techniques can be viewed as applications of more general principles for inference in the presence of uncertainty. (SLD)

A rating instrument is described that can be used to assess the results of stuttering treatments. The instrument yields a comprehensive and detailed description of speech quality in terms of articulation, phonation, pitch, and loudness, as well as naturalness. Psychometric characteristics of the instrument are analyzed, and methodological problems…

Psychometric properties of a Goals Inventory developed to measure learning and performance goal orientations were investigated with 187 undergraduates. The instrument was shown to be internally consistent and reliable over time, with a high degree of convergent and divergent validity, well suited for measurement with adults. (SLD)

Diagnostic assessment combining cognitive science and psychometrics, cognitively diagnostic assessment (CDA), is characterized in terms of the intended use of the assessment and methods of developing and evaluating assessments. Societal trends motivating the development of CDA and efforts to develop a five-step methodology for CDA are outlined.…

Assessed the reliability and validity of Cole's four-item version of the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire (SBQ). Clinical outpatients and undergraduates completed the SBQ and other measures. Results indicated the SBQ's strength lay in two areas: internal consistency and test-retest reliability over a two-week time period. (RJM)

To assess whether movement artifacts reported in visual inspection time (IT) tasks were under metacognitive control, 29 young adults in Edinburgh (Scotland) were tested on a dual-task paradigm in which IT was conducted along with a concurrent task. Reports of movement artifacts are not usually examples of metacognitive processing. (SLD)

The appropriateness of using Steps 1 and 2 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) to make individual academic decisions and the appropriateness of determining course grades with scores from the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) subject tests are examined. Underlying philosophical and psychometric assumptions are…

This commentary focuses on the application of D. Rogosa and G. Ghandour's work to observational research on classroom processes. Rogosa and Ghandour have shown that the short length of an observation is typically the dominant source of error. Investigators should conduct observations for as long as possible. (SLD)