Ability-achievement discrepancies were analyzed using the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery, WISC-R, and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test administered to a sample of low achievers. Reliabilities of difference scores were moderately high. Reliabilities of differences for devices normed on both the same and different populations…

Analyzes the ABIC using data on elementary children across racial and social lines. On item difficulty, scores are higher for middle-SES, older, first- or second-born children, and from families whose structures are more typical. ABIC-achievement correlations generally are too low to be of value. (Author)

Recent experience of test development in Ireland, which had no tradition of formal standardized testing, is described, in order to highlight a number of practical and psychometric problems. It is pointed out that some conventional procedures for developing norm-referenced attainment tests have limitations, especially in countries with centralized…

A statistical framework for investigating various regression approaches to linear composites is presented in this monograph. The consequences of variance approaches for psychometric theory are discussed. (A six-page bibliography is appended). (JKS)

Greek parents (N=320) were given the Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory and results were compared with American scores. Internal consistency reliability was high for four scales (abuse, distress, rigidity, and inconsistency). The Greek and American versions had similar factorial structures. Comparison found that Greek scores were significantly…

Argues that tests have always been used as a means of political and social control. Maintains that test results are unreliable, especially at the extremes, that their predictive power is weak and that language testers need to be skeptical and need to insist on complete information on candidates' backgrounds for selection decision making. (10…

This study conducted item reduction analyses on two measures of job-related social behavior for adolescents and young adults with emotional/behavioral disorders (Scale of Job-Related Social Skill Knowledge and Scale of Job-Related Social Skill Performance). The shortened measures contained 40 and 94 items, respectively. Reliability was…

The authors describe the construction of the Career-Related Parent Support Scale and examine the validity of the scale scores within a sample of at-risk middle school adolescents. Four empirically distinct parent support factors were confirmed along A. Bandura's sources of self-efficacy information. Gender and ethnic differences in perceived…

This study examined the psychometric and normative properties of the ADHD-Symptoms Rating Scale with preschool children. Results shed light on normative levels of ADHD behaviors and preschool children and suggested that preschoolers may present with a somewhat different symptom pattern than school-age children. Parents were more likely to endorse…

Evaluates the Lynch Enabling Survey for Parents (LESP), and determines the scale to be reliable and valid. Also examines the differences between at-risk and honors students and their parents' LESP scores. Results reveal that the LESP scores of parents of at-risk students were significantly more enabling than were the responses of parents of honors…

This book summarizes the evaluation by the Committee on the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) of the National Research Council of the U.S. Employment Service's use of the GATB. The book serves professional users, policymakers, and students of psychometrics because of its clear and concise review of important issues. (SLD)

Standardized patient case problems were administered to approximately 280 final year medical students. Results indicate that performance on a given component of clinical competence shows less consistency when measured on different cases than does performance on different components measured on the same case. (TJH)

The literature on testing has documented the existence of persistent anomalies in test scores of bilingual students. School psychology, which is test-dependent and test-defined, has an inadequate technology and knowledge base to deal with the testing of bilingual students, leading to error and misdiagnosis exacerbated by lack of viable testing…

Use of multiple-choice achievement tests is critiqued. Multiple-choice tests are considered heavily weighted toward aptitude and ill-suited to assessment of thinking. Psychometric methods for the development of alternatives to this inadequate form of testing achievement are discussed. (TJH)

Results from this study indicate that a cutoff consisting of the mean plus a half standard deviation is more desirable than the original mean plus one standard deviation strategy for categorizing respondents into a "pure" identity status. Status-specific comparisons indicated groups were not significantly different on measures of…