Defining coorientational accuracy as how closely one person estimates another's orientation to something cooriented, this paper examines the reasons why the concept has been favored as a criterion for communicating and how it has been measured. It notes problems in measuring accuracy with reference to various ways the orientation situation has…

Ten different weighting schemes were applied to the responses to a self-report deliquency measure and the resulting scores were evaluated in a multitrait-multimethod analysis. Four subscores and a total score were derived from the 35-item questionnaire which was administered orally on four occasions during an 18-week deliquency prevention project.…

The final report describes a project to facilitate the efficiency with which legally blind persons use their remaining vision. The project developed a diagnostic assessment procedure, a design for instruction which includes 150 sequenced lessons, and a sourcebook on low vision. The reliability and validity of the diagnostic assessment procedure…

Focusing on the use of the interview in the Procedures for Adopting Educational Innovations (PAEI) Project, this paper reports on the appropriateness of the interview as a research tool in change research and the types of information appropriate to its use. In this project, interviews are used to identify what an individual is doing, has done, or…

Certain testing procedures will overcome some of the problems associated with the use of essay tests. Essay tests may not validly indicate achievement because the questions included in the test may not fairly represent instructional content. Reliability may be a problem because of variations in examinee response in different situations, in test…

The trend towards using screening programs to facilitate early identification of developmental or learning problems has accentuated the need to establish reliable and valid screening procedures. Researchers in this area must recognize that the dichotomous decision-making function of screening (i.e., to refer or not refer a child for further…

It is sometimes desirable to obtain an estimated total-test score for an individual who was administered only a subset of the items in a total test. The present study compared six methods, two of which utilize the content structure of items, to estimate total-test scores using 450 students in grades 3-5 and 60 items of the ll0-item Stanford Mental…

Four criterion-referenced reliability coefficicents were compared to the Kuder-Richardson estimates and to each other. The Kuder-Richardson formulas 20 and 21, the Livingston, the Subkoviak and two Huynh coefficients were computed for a random sample of 33 criterion-referenced tests. The Subkoviak coefficient yielded the highest mean value;…

A general framework for making mastery/nonmastery decisions based on multivariate test data is described in this study. Over all, mastery is granted (or denied) if the posterior expected loss associated with such action is smaller than the one incurred by the denial (or grant) of mastery. An explicit form for the cutting contour which separates…

Ordinal response modes for multiple choice tests are those under which the examinee marks one or more choices in an effort to identify the correct choice, or include it in a proper subset of the choices. Two ordinal response modes: answer-until-correct, and Coomb's elimination of choices which examinees identify as wrong, were analyzed for scoring…

A study was conducted for the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island to analyze coverage of the accident by ten news organizations: two wire services, three commercial television networks, and five daily newspapers. Copies of all stories and transcripts of news programs during the first week of the accident were examined from…

Observation statements are characterized as being: (1) dependent upon the human senses or other sensory apparatus; (2) specific descriptions' (3) made by speakers who offer as the primary support for their statements the events or things which stimulated their making the statements; (4) used as the foundations for knowledge; and (5) easily…

THIS PAPER DESCRIBES A 60-ITEM GROUP ADMINISTERED PAPER-PENCIL ATTITUDE INVENTORY COMPRISED OF TWO SCALES, ONE ASSESSING THE CHILD'S BELIEFS ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM-SOLVING PROCESS (SCALE I) AND THE OTHER ASSESSING THE CHILD'S SELF-CONFIDENCE IN UNDERTAKING PROBELM-SOLVING ACTIVITIES (SCALE II). DATA FROM 325 FIFTH-GRADE AND SIXTH-GRADE…

The Vocational Performance Sample (VPS), a vocational assessment instrument for the severely retarded, integrates norm referenced technology with current innovations in domain referenced tests and learning potential assessment. The domains are based on a systematic sampling of types of training procedures and types of discriminations and/or…

Fair, valid, and reliable measurement of dependent variables is a concern in personnel evaluation studies. Performance tests, that is, job or work sample tests, situational tests, and job learning or trainability tests, are being used with increasing frequency as measurement techniques capable of meeting these needs. The three categories of…