The role of content validity in policy-relevant research is illustrated in a study contrasting results of surveys concerning public opinion toward gun control. Inadequate content validity threatened inferences about the overall level of support for gun control, but not about opinion difference between sexes or respondents of varying political…

This explication of the role of cognitive processes in fright reactions to mass media stimuli focuses on past experiences as a possible--and important--component in the fear response. Research is reported on development of a measure of the nature of these past experiences. Implications for use are discussed. (MBR)

Concludes that the reviewed test, which is designed to assess mathematics, reading, spelling, and writing abilities in students from first grade through post high school, is limited in usefulness for older students. (FL)

Discusses problems with the ACTFL/ETS Oral Proficiency Guidelines and examines inconsistencies relating to three assumptions of oral proficiency (OPT)--hours of study, accuracy/interest, and errors. Further, it is argued that the main problems with OPT arise from an analytic approach and the native speaker yardstick. (SED)

This study examined the influence of processing strategies, and the metacomponents that determine when to apply them, on the construct validity of a verbal reasoning test. A rule-oriented strategy, an association strategy, and a partial rule strategy were examined. All three strategies contributed to individual differences in verbal reasoning.…

Addresses two concerns about how educational reforms are being carried out: (1) the definitions being used to determine what is basic in education, and (2) the tests being used to measure those "basic skills." Suggests some solutions for teachers who recognize the legitimacy of public concern and the necessity of public support. (HTH)

Discusses criticism leveled at intelligence tests, including cultural and ethnic bias, charges related to content validity, and the ongoing debate of the relative influence of heredity and environment. Many popular attacks are misguided. (RM)

For 404 community college students differentiated by sex, ethnicity, and types of educational majors, an estimate of the concurrent validity of each of two predictor measures (locus of control and sex-role orientation) was obtained relative to a criterion measure portraying the fear of success construct. (Author/PN)

The purpose of this study was to provide cross-cultural validation evidence about the factorial structure, reliability, and correlates of the Attitudes Toward Mainstreaming Scale for samples of education students, teachers-in-training, and elementary school teachers in New Zealand. (Author/PN)

This response to Batsche and Peterson's article discusses the theoretical, empirical, and pragmatic merits of projective assessment when performed in the context of a comprehensive personality assessment battery. The projective measures should not be considered in isolation. The author concludes projective techniques are not incompatible with…

Recent changes in the objectives and techniques of testing India's university students are examined, including trends toward continuous rather than biennial or annual evaluation; internal (institutional) rather than external, standardized examinations; replacement of essay exams with more objective methods; and a letter grading system. (MSE)

A study of the Israeli "bagrut" (maturity examination) correlated number of absences from class with class grades ("magen") and with examination grades for 300 students. Although negative relationships were found in both cases, the subjectivity of internally based, subject-teacher assessment makes it a questionable part of the…

PLANA is a training program for subject matter analysis and construction of instructional objectives. This investigation tries to find out whether education students in the PLANA program differ from other students on planning instruction processes. (BW)

The Regression Model, popular in selection bias research, is proposed for use in item bias detection, providing a common framework for both types of bias. An empirical test of this new method, now called the Regression Bias method, and a comparison with other commonly used item bias detection methods are presented. (Author/BS)

Describes a study that focused on measures of reading comprehension using responses from subjects during the reading process--specifically, oral reading errors. Concludes that the scores obtained adequately predicted reading comprehension performance. (FL)