Describes the development and validation of a 56-item science and engineering career interest survey for seventh- through ninth-grade students. The survey includes questions on occupational activities, selection of occupations, and an internal verification scale. Results indicate significant differences in career interest for boys and girls. (DH)

Discusses the problem of testing with particular regard to the evaluation of aural-oral skills within a modern methodological context. The use of pictures, paragraphs, and dialogs to test listening skills and of pictures and micro-dialogs to test speaking skills is described. (SED)

The new Florida Master Teacher Program in which the state provides bonuses directly to qualified teachers is described. Three measurement issues in implementing the program are discussed: (1) evaluating a teacher's classroom performance; (2) evaluating a teacher's subject area knowledge; and (3) combining scores to determine which teachers…

To validate a previous measure of teachers' educational beliefs which yielded four factors, a new, longer measure was administered to 320 elementary school teachers. The results yielded two dimensions, namely student-centered and directive teaching. (Author/GDC)

Describes the development of the Perceived Well-Being Scale (PWB), which allows for separate assessment of psychological and physical well-being. Several studies bearing on the psychometric properties and usefulness of the PWB are presented and the implications of the findings are discussed. (Author/CT)

The 121-item Children's Interest Inventory was administered to 517 children in grades four through six. Teachers also rated each child's scholastic, social, and creative ability. Factor analysis revealed nine boys' factors and eight girls'. Interests were not related to ability ratings, somewhat related to grade, and highly related to gender.…

Examines traditional psychometric approaches to measuring intelligence and recent work by cognitive psychologists to develop a rationale for a non-verbal reasoning test for 10- to 11-year-olds. Recent studies providing basis for analyzing structure of test items are outlined, and benefits of analyzing items at a sub-type level are discussed.…

Describes the California comprehensive adult student assessment system that measures the identified competencies of local education programs, and provides information about student placement, progress, and competency attainment in a format that is meaningful to the student, the instructor, and the program manager. (Author/CT)

A British polytechnic's first experiences with having one segment of a major examination be known to students ahead of time is discussed, and an empirical comparison of this and the traditional test type is presented. (MSE)

A reliable measure of knowledge of social work facts and practice concepts in the areas of policy, administration, research, and evaluation is described, including the process of item development and selection, assessment of content validity, test administration, scoring, applications for individual educational planning, and use in program…

The influence of item arrangement on students' total test performance was investigated. Two hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the data. The main finding within the context of this study was that item arrangements based on item difficulties did not influence achievement examination performance. (Author/DWH)

Concludes that the PDIL (the Spanish version of the Test of Early Language Development) should be used with caution. Since its reliability and validity were determined with the English language version, the method used to translate test items may have some ambiguities, and some illustrations on picture cards may not be culturally appropriate for…

Describes the Colorado Writing Assessment Program, a testing program that provides two kinds of feedback to teachers and students: (1) a holistic score that measures the general quality of writing and (2) a set of scores on analytic scales that reflect students' achievement in four areas. Concludes that the program works. (FL)

An annotated bibliography of 22 tests designed for core French, French immersion, and native French speaking students includes information on intended test population, levels, test types, test construction, use history and statistics, and source. An index and directory of distributors are included. (MSE)

Discusses the problem of and solution to anxiety in school testing situations. Focuses on Hill and his colleagues' long term program of research. Describes school intervention studies where new evaluation procedures and teaching programs have been developed to help students perform better in evaluative situations. (CB)