This report evaluates the conduct, validity, and uses of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Trial State Assessment (TSA). The report addresses such pressing problems as how participation in NAEP can be maintained and appropriate samples can be achieved; how errors can be minimized in the complex process of scaling and analyzing…

This study examined the relationship between scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III) and the older Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). School psychologists in Wisconsin were asked to provide data on 300 special education re-evaluations completed during the 1992-93 academic year. Pearson product…

Findings from a study that explored differences in the definition and operationalization of leadership between mainstream and disadvantaged groups are presented in this paper. The "fuzzy concept operationalization method" was used to define leadership traits in two groups of leaders participating in two different leadership training workshops: 12…

The Course Placement Service of the American College Testing Program (ACT) uses logistic regression to model the relationships between outcomes in standard college courses and placement test scores. The logistic regression results are used together with empirical test score data to obtain estimates of validity statistics (e.g., proportion of…

A study investigated factors in design of oral language comprehension tests and their relevance in determining actual language proficiency, focusing on the tests' decoding requirements. Task-based, interactive oral language tests were designed: (1) to elicit information about integration of first (L1) and second languages (L2) in the learner's…

This paper examines one section of the objective paper of the Hong Kong Examination Authority's (HKEA) Use of English Examination. One of the test types in this section of the examination involves candidates completing a cloze passage based on a text. It is the HKEA's contention that the exercise involves summarizing/paraphrasing skills. The…

The merits and disadvantages of standardized and informal reading tests for limited English proficient readers are discussed. A growing reliance on standardized ("formal") tests due to their ease of administration and scoring is criticized because the tests are seen as: inadequate for describing students at high and low ends of the scale; not…

Many researchers have suggested that the main cause of item bias is the misspecification of the latent ability space. That is, items that measure multiple abilities are scored as though they are measuring a single ability. If two different groups of examinees have different underlying multidimensional ability distributions and the test items are…

Past research has suggested that the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMS) is a brief, reliable, and valid measure of marital satisfaction. This study was conducted to: (1) examine responses on the KMS from a national sample of couples; (2) assess the construct validity of the KMS through a comparison with the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment…

The study evaluated the validity, reliability, and effectiveness in providing needed information of the Montana Functional Vision Assessment (MFVA) Instrument by comparing it with the Texas Education Agency Functional Vision Assessment and field testing the instrument in evaluations of nine multihandicapped students (ages 3-11). Evaluation led to…

The Art Self-Concept Inventory (ASCI) was developed as a situation specific self-concept instrument to measure the students' ideas and feelings about themselves in the art context. Art self-concept was defined as students' perceptions of themselves as makers, as judges, and as enjoyers of art. To top these dimensions of art self-concept, items…

Two acculturation measures, Szapocznik's (1978) Behavioral Acculturation Scale and Dawson's (1971) Chinese Traditional-Modern Scale, were adapted and applied to two college-aged groups of first and second generation Chinese Americans and one group of Caucasian Americans. Hypotheses concerned the empirical and construct validity of both measures…

The report describes goals and accomplishments of a project to develop and validate an assessment battery of leisure functioning in handicapped children. The battery was intended to meet the need created by the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and provide data for the assessment of recreation and leisure functioning as part of the…

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the predictive validity of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) for deaf students at one institution and learning disabled (LD) students at another. SAT scores and measures of high school and college performance were obtained at each institution for both handicapped and nonhandicapped students. Additional…

Objective and reliable techniques for the assessment of attention deficit disorders (ADD) with and without hyperactivity in children have remained largely unavailable to psychologists, educators and pediatricians. As a consequence, they have tended to base their evaluations of ADD solely on observations and teacher reports, or on measures such as…