Encourages teachers to evaluate the strategies used by their students in comprehension. Argues that this will provide information that will help in planning instruction. (FL)

Notes that because reading and writing are separate but complementary aspects of a single language system, the way teachers plan activities determines the way in which children's writing helps them develop insights into their reading. (FL)

Concludes that modified standard reading inventories may be made more useful for assessing the specific abilities and needs of disabled readers. Offers suggestions for making modifications. (FL)

Concludes that standardized tests do not always reflect children's actual reading achievement and that the tests may not measure performance on the same types of material emphasized in basal series. (FL)

Describes a study of the effects of direct exposure to the reading selection topics of the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test reading comprehension subtest on students' posttest scores. Finds that instruction in reading strategies helps student performance, but that background information on test topics did not affect scores. (AYC)

Although cognitive style affects test results, students of various cognitive styles are expected to perform equally well on standardized tests. Informal tests seem to be better for both impulsive and reflective style students. Perhaps a combination of standardized and informal testing is appropriate for making educational decisions about students.…

Reviews research dealing with test wiseness and concludes that teachers and others who administer tests and those who review results should consider the degree to which test wiseness characteristics might have been operative had a planned effort been undertaken to provide special instruction. (FL)

Reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT) and compares the use and misuse of the test as revealed through published surveys. Finds problems in the use of the NDRT to diagnose the specific reading needs and deficiencies of low-achieving students and to measure individual growth. (CBC)

According to studies using the Degrees of Reading Power system for estimating readability, most high school graduates cannot read at a level enabling them to understand much of what they read in newspapers, periodicals, work-related documents, or many high school texts or tests. (PGD)

Analysis of deaf college students' (N=100) performance on the Degrees of Reading Power test (which assesses reading comprehension with use of a modified cloze procedure) revealed that postlingually deaf students scored higher than prelingually deaf students. Scores correlated with degree of hearing loss for prelingually deaf students and…

Reports on the first phases of an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages project to develop a computerized adaptive test of reading proficiency. The theoretical multidimensionality of the construct is clarified, and its implications for test development, item calibration, and validation procedures are discussed. (Author/SED)

Learning disabled and behaviorally disordered third and fourth grade students were taught test taking skills such as attending to appropriate stimuli, marking answers carefully, using time well, and avoiding errors. These students scored significantly higher than their untrained peers on the Word Study Skills subtest of the Stanford Achievement…

Reports on a study that examined differences in the comprehension scores achieved by seventh and eighth grade students on Form 1 and Form 3 of the Gates-MacGinitie, Level E. (HOD)

Argues that the Degrees of Reading Power test is not a valid tool for its main purpose, matching students to appropriate texts, because the test's units of text difficulty are not uniformly comparable to the test's units used to reflect a reader's ability. (HOD)

Explains significant but accounted for factors that affected the validity of the Degrees of Reading Power Test. (HOD)