This paper investigates the reliability of the Florida Performance Measurement Systems' Summative Observation instrument. Developed for the Florida Beginning Teacher Evaluation Program, it provides behavioral ratings for teachers in a classroom setting. Data came from ratings of videotapes of nine teachers conducting actual lessons by nine teams…

In fall 1983, Napa Valley College fully implemented its Student Orientation, Assessment, Advisement, and Retention (SOAAR) program, which consisted of assessment of first-time students' math and reading skills, advisement about enrolling in regular or developmental courses based on scores, course advisement, and the provision of information on…

Students' abstract reasoning abilities can differ from one society to another. Students' profiles play significant roles in these differences. The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between middle school students' cognitive development levels and their profiles (age, gender, and science achievement) using the Science Cognitive…

The relationships between Myers-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI), 16 personality types, and 55 behavioral indicators of teacher competency were explored. Subjects were 103 classroom teachers, grades K-12, who were observed in regular classrooms during a two-year period using five objectively-scored, low-inference observation systems. These included…

Problems in the use of pupil achievement measures for evaluating teachers, schools or systems are reviewed, with the conclusion that they are disabling. The following reasons are cited: (1) What the pupil brings to the classroom in terms of ability, previous knowledge, home and peer influence, motivation, and other influences is clearly very…

This study was designed to examine the predictive significance of different types and degrees of precocity in preschool children and to assess the effects of participation in a model preschool-kindergarten program operated in conjunction with the study. Extraordinary precocity is defined for this study as performance at the norm for children twice…

In this speech, the president of the National Education Association presents a series of arguments against the development of national educational standards and against the continued use of national, norm-referenced, standardized tests. Eight objections to the use of such tests are noted. Defense of the teaching profession's objections to the…

To determine the concurrent validity of a standardized test and its usefulness to educators, reading ratings from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were compared to teacher ratings and independently administered placement test ratings. Two hundred one primary children, the majority of whom read one or more years below grade level, took the ITBS by a…

In 11 chapters with 54 data tables and 29 diagrams, the author discusses the theory, problems, and uses of educational indicators. He defines educational indicators as characteristics that point, with more or less exactness, to general or overall aspects of an educational system. Chapter 1 examines the concept of an educational indicator and the…

Technical notes concerning the Survey of Income and Education (SIE), April-July 1976, which was conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, are presented. Information is presented on the source of the data, sample design, estimation procedure, reliability of the estimates, nonsampling variability,…

This module is one in a series of seven focused on skills vocational teachers need to develop and manage programs that are performance-based and fully individualized. Designed to allow for individualization of a teacher education program, these modules supplement those prepared by the National Center for Research in Vocational Education for…

While the goal of language teaching has been the development of practical communication, most language tests have stressed mastery of discrete linguistic skills. Oral language performance-based testing requires test-takers to use and perform in the language in actual communicative situations. The variations in communication created by the…

The applicability of a recognized construct validation procedure, the nomological network, to a sixth-grade criterion-referenced mathematics test developed in a metropolitan school system was investigated. Two samples were tested. The first sample was used to investigate two hypotheses: items within each objective will constitute a Guttman scale,…

Administrative and technical problems were encountered in carrying out a minimum competency program for high school students in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. The history of required minimum competency testing was reviewed briefly, and the process of clarifying and operationalizing the requirements was described within the Austin…

This book of readings for counselors, researchers, faculty, graduate students, and policy-makers provides information regarding issues on sex fairness and sex bias in occupational interest measurement. The papers are presented in three sections, with each section prefaced by introductory comments by the editors. The first section, an introduction,…