Functional-level testing is fundamental to the evaluation models of the Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I Evaluation and Reporting System, although criteria for determining what is a functional-level test are unclear. Reliability and validity of test scores in the range of chance is at issue. (Author/RL)

Sex-restrictive and sex-balanced interest scores obtained before college were compared for college seniors using the Holland interest/personality types as criteria. Results suggest that sex-balanced interest scores are more valid than sex-restrictive scores across four years of college. Implications for practitioners are noted. (Author)

Investigated the individual item response patterns of the Depression Adjective Check List (DACL) form E where the population group, sex, race, age, and education were the independent variables. Of the 34 analyses, 32 produced the population as the most significant contribution to the prediction equation. (Author)

Reports the reliability, validity, and unidimensionality of New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale, an instrument designed to measure how people feel about nature. Based on statewide samples of farmers (N=348) and metropolitan residents (N=407) of Iowa, the NEP was determined to be valid, reliable, and multidimensional, measuring three distinct…

Puerto Rican students took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the Prueba de Aptitud Academica (PAA), and the Pruebas de Aprovechamiento Academico. The strength of the relationship between scores on the SAT given in English and the PAA given in Spanish increased as proficiency in English as a second language increased (Author/BW)

Short forms containing 24 or 25 items each were developed for the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire, the My Class Inventory, and the Classroom Environment Scale. Reliability and validity data are reported. (Author/BW)

Data suggest that using the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in addition to high school records for determining college admissions adds virtually no useful predictive information over selection based on high school records alone. (Author/JM)

Further evidence is given on validity in the conventional and retrospective pretest-posttest designs using self-report measures as outcome criteria. Experimental training in Seeing Problems Strategy was effective in improving task performance. The retrospective self-report approach reflected the change. Subjects initially overestimated their…

The Uniform Guidelines for Employee Selection Procedures created a need for efficient validation methods that can be generalized to a class of occupations. One method currently authorized by the Guidelines is synthetic validation. Describes approaches to synthetic validity. Recommends Primoff's J-Coefficient approach. (Author/JAC)

Examined the relationship between anxiety and self-actualization in a sample of college students. Items (N=33) from the Personal Orientation Inventory were found to measure anxiety and scored negatively for self-actualization. Removal of anxiety items and rescoring yielded self-actualization measures related postively to anxiety test scores.…

A study of 22 learning disabled (LD) and normal children (mean age nine years) was undertaken to illustrate the research problems involved in using analysis of covariance to control for differences between LD and normal children on measures of intelligence. (SW)

A self-administered rating scale containing 24 items thought to reflect the major components of Type A behavior was developed to assess Type A behavior in children. The scale was judged to be reliable after tests were conducted among 160 public school fifth and sixth graders and yielded the following factors: "eagergy"…

Discusses two reasons why the state of writing performance may worsen when, beginning in 1983, Tennessee high school students must pass a proficiency test as a condition for graduation; reasons are the objective nature of the test and the language performance objectives which the test proposes to measure. (NEC)

Standardized tests have been criticized consistently as being biased, imprecise, and limited. However, lower scores on achievement tests are due to the fact that students are no longer as well prepared by the schools as they have been in the past. (JN)

Provides information on statistical data and jargon so that English department members can more confidently and responsibly identify the inevitable weaknesses and limitations of both tests of writing ability and the research on them. (RL)