Specialists in child development have recommended that children be "read to" at an early age. Many children are read to, and some have been read to a great deal. However, much more is to be desired for some groups of the population and for some individuals. In recognition of the needs of these children this Curriculum in Listening Achievement was…

This questionnaire assesses marijuana use practices in college students. The 30 items (multiple choice or free response) are concerned with personal and demographic data, marijuana smoking practices, use history, effects from smoking marijuana, present attitude toward the substance, and use of other drugs. The Questionnaire is untimed and…

Materials intended for driving knowledge test development use by operational licensing and education agencies were prepared. Candidate test items were developed, using literature and operational practice sources, to reflect current state-of-knowledge with respect to principles of safe, efficient driving, to legal regulations, and to traffic…

Describes an integrated series of computer-assisted reading (CAR) materials under development at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. The discussion indicates some of the problems in teaching reading with computers, describes the framework of the CAR project, and gives specific examples of activities. (SED)

LEAP 21 (Louisiana Educational Assessment Program for the 21st Century) is an integral part of the Louisiana school and district accountability system. In the school year 1999-2000, students in Grade 8 took LEAP 21 English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies tests. For LEAP 21, student scores are reported in terms of five…

This study investigated how the adoption of a constructivist model of teaching and learning and simple item analysis techniques can be used to explore the instructor's pedagogical content knowledge in teaching elementary statistics. Descriptive data (percent of students responding to multiple-choice test options) are provided that support the case…

Describes an in-class exercise using students' discussion of their answers on a multiple choice test to demonstrate the powerful effects and pervasiveness of social influence. After a brief multiple choice test, students discuss their answers with their neighbors and then answer again. Similar response patterns emerge among the participants. (MJP)

Compares the empirical performance of C-tests with other representatives of the family of reduced redundancy tests--classical cloze, cloze-elide, multiple-choice cloze--using the Duisburg English Language Test for Advanced Students as the criterion for empirical validity. Findings reveal that the C-Test emerges as the most economical and reliable…

Describes a microcomputer-based examination system based on multiple choice questions (MCQ) that has been used for the assessment of aptitude in chemistry. The ability of the system to generate a test based on a student's previous performance is explained, and the system design and implementation are detailed. (eight references) (Author/LRW)

This study compared a variety of outcome measures for eighth-grade students with special needs integrated into regular social studies classes. Students with special needs performed similarly to regular education peers on multiple-choice facts tests, multiple-choice problem-solving tests, and short problem-solving essays, but performed…

Gender differences in English proficiency as a function of testing method were examined by comparing the scores of a representative sample of Swedish secondary school students who took the national English test. It found that boys performed better than girls on the multiple-choice part, whereas girls did better on the free-response part that…

Examines, in a qualitative study, the role of mandated tests on elementary schools, describing in particular their emotional impact on teachers, who may suffer sanctions or loss of autonomy based on low test scores. Describes some of the curricular and methodological effects of standardized testing. (CJS)

In this study, 590 third graders from 12 Dutch schools took 32 tests indicating 16 semantic Structure-of-Intellect (SI) abilities and 1 of 4 reading comprehension tests, involving either multiple-choice or open-ended items. Results indicate that item type for reading comprehension is congeneric with respect to SI abilities measured. (TJH)

This exploratory case study investigates relationships between use of an inquiry-based instructional style and student scores on standardized multiple-choice tests. The study takes the form of a case study of physical science classes taught by one of the authors over a span of four school years. The first 2 years were taught using traditional…

The current study explored possible sources of demographic effects through analyses of errors from modified formats of the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) completed by African American elders. Results indicate that: (1) reading level was a stronger predictor of BVRT performance than years of education; (2) on the single-item matching format of…