This article describes a number of problems every educational measurement specialist should be prepared to confront before using microcomputers to support test-related activities, including problems with hardware, with software, and with implementing a system. It concludes with a checklist for planning a microcomputer application. (BW)

Research on testing, use of intelligence scales, and use of personality scales is a major part of educational psychological research in Greece. A great deal of research has also been done in Greece on the problem of evaluating current educational practice. (BW)

One Midwestern state has chosen a model of state assessment in which local school districts are responsible for developing the strategies to measure and report their students' performance on state-adopted content standards. When students are not measured on common instruments, district accountability becomes an added challenge. This paper presents…

The focus in this study was on science achievement measures and their relationships to three reasoning dimensions: basic knowledge and reasoning, spatial-mechanical reasoning, and quantitative science reasoning. Thirty multiple-choice items, 8 constructed response items, and 3 performance assessments, each nominally assigned to 1 of the reasoning…

The Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) is a mandated statewide assessment program that targets four core content areas. English language arts, including reading and writing, and mathematics are given to students in grades 3, 5, 8, and 10; science and social studies are given to students in grades 4, 6, 8, and 11. The DSTP reading and…

This article examines the implications of the shift, in England and Wales, from the previous National Curriculum assessment model based on the assessment of performance in relation to statements of attainment, to a model based on level descriptions founded on the recommendations of R. Dearing (1994). Both models reflect a common sense view that…

Assessing complex teaching performance in the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has caused the Educational Testing Service to wrestle with fundamental scoring issues that are both conceptual and technical. This report reviews the challenges encountered, how they are being addressed, and what the NBPTS effort has learned…

This paper provides a brief overview of the purpose and process of establishing competency-based standards for college admissions in the state of Washington. The state's Higher Education Coordinating Board is required by law to establish minimum requirements for admission to Washington's public baccalaureate institutes. The current policy, adopted…

This paper is the fourth in a series prepared for the National Academy of Education on the evaluation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress Trial State Assessment (TSA) and the impact of reporting TSA results. This paper provides a perspective on the last of the TSAs, an assessment of fourth-grade reading that was carried out in 44…

"The Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales" (MIDAS) is a self- (or other-) completed instrument which is based upon the theory of multiple intelligences. The validity, reliability, and utility data regarding the MIDAS are reported here. The measure consists of 7 main scales and 24 subscales which summarize a person's intellectual…

The psychometric research done by G. Rasch between 1951 and 1959, which is explained and illustrated in this book, takes psychometrics from being purely descriptive to being a science of objective measurement. Individual centered statistics require models in which each individual is characterized separately and from which, given adequate data,…

This videotape contains a series of presentations by Benjamin D. Wright of the University of Chicago about the Rasch model and measurement in testing. The first presentation is excerpts from a workshop held in 1974 for educators from the Portland (Oregon) Public Schools and the Oregon Department of Education. Dr. Wright's lectures were part of a…

This report compares estimates of selected data from the two components of the 1993 National Household Education Survey (NHES:93), the School Readiness (SR) survey and the School Safety and Discipline (SS&D) survey, with data from other surveys and published sources. The two different components cover a variety of topics related to education,…

The internal construct validity of the 1989 Advanced Placement Spanish Language Examination was analyzed to determine whether the traditional four-factor examination structure hypothesized by test developers (listening, reading, writing, speaking) was invariant for relevant subpopulations. Using a nested hierarchical design, multiple confirmatory…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the 55 test specifications for the Praxis I: Academic Skills Assessments computer-based tests (CBT) and the Praxis I: Pre-Professional Skills Tests (PPST) were judged to be appropriate for entry-level vocational education teachers regardless of specialty area. The test specification statements were…