Offers arguments opposing the minimal competency testing movement. (MKM)

Reports on a study that provides evidence of the validity of the cloze test as a measure of reading comprehension and its subskills as measured by a conventional standardized reading achievement test. (HOD)

Describes a school board's decision to employ a standardized reading proficiency test despite the fact that the test was proven to be passage independent and thus did not measure reading comprehension. (DD)

Discusses the advantages of and objections to testing children's reading ages and recommends that test results be given for both reading age and percentile levels (rather than standardized scores). (JM)

Reports on two research projects are presented, one on the compilation of an Indonesian dictionary and the other on developing the reading skills of science students in Thailand. (Author)

Tests, with five groups, the production of facilitative transfer effects with the use of five abstract passages. It was predicted, based on assumptions about knowledge structures that three of the groups would recall more from the second passage than would the latter two groups. The results confirmed this prediction. (Author/DEP)

Eight fifth-grade children were tested in three contexts to determine the effects of adult support and regulation on their ability to read words in isolation and to read connected discourse. Findings are discussed in terms of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. (Author/MT)

Discusses issues in reading assessment, including the concern that tests can not measure the reading process. Concludes that tests will never be more than useful indicators; calls for more research and examination of existing and new types of reading comprehension tests. (MM)

Provides insights and procedures used in clinical approaches to reading diagnosis and suggests ways classroom teachers might use them. (FL)

Demonstrates how a universal taxonomy of reading goals might be related to a taxonomy of reading means. (FL)

Reading tasks frequently performed by electronics engineers and technicians were identified and simulated with test items in four domains: (1) comprehending articles; (2) locating information in schematics; (3) locating information in articles; and (4) locating information in manuals. Factor analyses revealed two factors: comprehension and…

Encourages reading teachers to use journal writing by college students to look beyond basic skill deficiencies, to seek and monitor physical, emotional, psychological, and environmental factors that may impair students' progress in reading. (SRT)

Reports on two studies of the effect of different typographic settings on the speed and accuracy of responses to cloze procedure reading tests. Concludes that in-text responding and dashes produce significantly higher scores. (SRT)

Reports the results of a state survey that examined community college reading assessment and diagnostic tools and makes recommendations about appropriate assessment and diagnostic tools for community colleges. (HOD)

Reading test questions were classified as literal or inferential. The kind of question was controlled to determine the influence of test format on comprehension. Analysis of variance indicated no direct effects attributable to test format or kinds of comprehension. Contentions of deficits in automaticity and attentional focus in poor readers were…