The Administrator Professional Leadership Scale (APLS) was developed to measure the professional leadership quality of a school principal, and to provide principals with anonymous feedback on teachers' perceptions of their leadership. Further refinement was carried out to increase its reliability; to discover categories of administrator behavior…

The Rasch model was used to compare the grade equivalent scores which students of equal ability would have obtained, had they taken different levels of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS). Raw scores on items common to levels 9-14 of the ITBS (vocabulary subtest) were obtained from 6,000 students in Dallas, Texas. Rasch scales were used to…

The Analysis of Developmental Learning Skills (ADLS) is a school readiness test, designed to diagnose lags in developmental skills in four and five year old children. The nine subtests are: motor coordination, visual performance, visual perception, visual memory, auditory perception, auditory memory, language development, conceptual development,…

To test some aspects of Skinnerian programed instruction, a 241-frame program on Swedish grammar was presented to students 10 to 12 years old. Skinnerian insistence on student-constructed overt responses and on presenting the "key answer" after each frame were contrasted with covert responses and key answer frequencies less than 100…

The seven Barber Scales of Self-Regard for Preschool Children were developed to provide instruments for assessing levels of development for individual children. The purpose of this study was to probe into the question of whether or not raters (mothers, fathers, teachers) had difficulties rating children on the scales. Two sources of evidence were…

This paper describes conventions in the scoring of classroom tests and of the achievement batteries used in school districts', testing programs in the U.S. The scales used for the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the American College Testing Program are described. Some new, criterion-referenced scales developed for state and national assessments are…

Based on the standard setting procedures or the American Board of Preventive Medicine for their Core Test, this article describes how Rasch measurement can facilitate using test content judgments in setting a standard. Rasch measurement can then be used to evaluate and improve the precision of the standard and to hold it constant across time.…

Before using the National Teacher Examinations (NTE) for teacher certification, states are required to conduct a state-wide validity study. This paper describes approaches used in 35 studies for 18 states to establish (NTE) content validity through curriculum and job relatedness and to establish minimum performance standards. (BS)

A specific application of test equating is described, namely that of credentialing examination programs in the health professions. Considered are: (1) the role of test equating in the credentialing process; and (2) the issues that must be considered when implementing test equating in a credentialing examination program. (Author/LMO)

This study evaluated procedures for establishing a minimum performance standard for the essay subtest of the National Teacher Examinations Communications Skills test. Results indicated the preferred procedure for setting standards on essays should involve a blind review followed by an informed review. (Author/DWH)

The objectives, construction, and use of the lowest and most general test of the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris series of business French proficiency tests are outlined, and the centers authorized to administer the test in the United States are listed. (MSE)

The Boder Test of Reading-Spelling Patterns is designed as an assessment of reading and spelling skills that allows specific diagnosis of the source and typology of reading problems. From a purely psychometric perspective, the BTRSP fails on virtually every characteristic examined. (BW)

Problems of scale typically arise when comparing test score trends, gaps, and gap trends across different tests. To overcome some of these difficulties, we can express the difference between the observed test performance of two groups with graphs or statistics that are metric-free (i.e., invariant under positive monotonic transformations of the…

Many factors must be considered when a company decides to market its product in another country. It must research the targeted country to determine if there is a demand for the product, decide on product modifications needed to match the new market, and develop a plan to market and distribute the product in this new business environment. In this…

In the current climate of accountability in American public education, tests get more attention and carry more importance than ever before. Both state accountability systems and the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) hold schools accountable for whether students pass standardized state tests. NCLB requires that schools and school districts…