Content analysis was used to determine the evaluation criteria of high school and college teachers and college seniors in grading essay tests. Content analysis is defined as a way of asking a fixed set of questions unfalteringly of all of a predetermined body of writings, in such a way as to produce quantitative results. Four reponses to a…

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) Spelling Test is designed to measure levels of achievement in spelling and comprises Test Cards, Answer Sheets, Class Analysis Charts and Handbook. The test itself is divided into four parts, one part for each of years 3 through 6 with each part consisting of 50 words. Directions for…

Errors in oral reading tests result from inaccuracies that tend to creep in because children are not totally consistent while taking a test and from inaccuracies caused when the examiner does not catch a word recognition error, giving credit for an answer that is more wrong than right or vice versa. Every test contains a standard error of…

Consistent with its mission of synthesizing available information on performance assessment in a variety of skill areas, the Clearinghouse for Applied Performance Assessment has prepared this summary of the role of performance assessment in selected published tests of problem-solving skill. Performance assessment is defined in terms of assessment…

This is the second of three volumes designed to cover the problems and issues of developing and managing a school assessment program. The series offers guidelines and illustrations of several special aspects of assessment programs, such as administering tests and documenting their results. This volume deals with the planning of assessment…

The decline in writing ability among students entering college can be attributed to such factors as the absence of verbal precision in television, advertising, and political language, the lack of writing practice in high school English classes, overloaded and unprepared English teachers, and the difficulties involved in evaluating student writing.…

A poorly designed data processing system in a school district testing office may cause a delay in the creation of test results, produce inaccurate results, or utilize more resources than are necessary. Therefore, the authors present a model of a data processing system as a basis for comparing systems in terms of the basic functions they must…

THIS PROJECT ATTEMPTED TO DETERMINE IF NUMERICAL SCORING SYSTEMS FOR CLINICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING TESTS COULD BE DEVELOPED WHICH WOULD MEASURE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DIFFERENT INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS IN TEACHING CLINICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS. THE PROJECT WAS TO VALIDATE AND CROSS-VALIDATE THE SCORING SYSTEMS BY TESTS OF POPULATION SAMPLES OF KNOWN…

Five statistical indices are developed and described which may be used for determining (1) when linear equating of two approximately parallel tests is adequate, and (2) whan a more complex method such as equipercentile equating must be used. The indices were based on: (1) similarity of cumulative score distributions; (2) shape of the raw-score to…

Experiences with competency testing at the elementary level in the area of English language are presented, as well as suggestions for improving the quality of competency tests. In order to modify curricula and requirements to meet the demands of assessment and to ensure sufficient student instruction, the following suggestions are made: (1)…

No-deadline sections of a personalized child development course and sections that had deadlines were compared in regard to proctor workload, proctor grading accuracy, and pressure on proctors. A total of 167 students in four sections of the course, and five proctors and one instructor per section, participated in the study. Students in the…

The scoring scheme of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is studied, as well as techniques for estimating its reliability. NAEP data are collected on students of age 13 in the fall, age 9 in the winter, and age 17 in the spring. The scoring task, involving hand scoring of open-ended items, may vary between 25,000 responses to…

As an alternative for or adjunct to paper-and-pencil tests for predicting personnel performance, the United States Air Force studied the use of peer ratings as an evaluative tool. Purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of peer ratings among Air Force basic trainees. Peer ratings were obtained from more than 27,000…

Number right and elimination scores were analyzed on a 48-item college level mathematics test that was assembled from pretest data in three forms by varying the item orderings: easy-hard, uniform, or random. Half of the forms contained information explaining the item arrangement and suggesting strategies for taking the test. Several anxiety…