Considers the need for academic libraries to measure the effectiveness of reference services on an ongoing basis, and discusses factors to be considered in the planning, design, implementation, and analysis of various assessment methods. The different evaluation criteria for reference staff, bibliographic instruction, and online services are…

Current nationwide efforts to improve education call for new information for policymakers in testing and evaluation. Recent state and national evaluation activities, including the Department of Education's project to establish statistical indicators for education, are discussed. Guidelines are given for developing reasonable and appropriate…

An analysis of national programs for monitoring student achievement in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States finds that "national assessment" promotes a view of "standards" which is narrow, limiting, and definitely not conducive to the emergence of flexible and imaginative educational policies designed to cope…

A procedure is suggested for test development and construct validation based on a theory about the criterion performance. The method is illustrated by describing a study concerned with the selection of medical school students, where the criterion is a measure of clinical problem-solving ability. (Author/LMO)

Test development procedures and six methods for determining cut-off scores are briefly described. An alternate method, appropriate when the test developer also determines the cut-off score, is suggested. Unlike other methods, the standard is set during the test development stage. Its computations are intelligible to nonstatistically-oriented…

Concludes that we are changing from a society whose goals were basically economic to one whose goals are psychological, and consequently we cannot expect the economists or the demographers to tell us to what extent these goals are being met or under what conditions they are most likely to be fulfilled. (Author/AM)

The issue covered in this paper involves accountability, an issue that has been discussed almost entirely in terms of adequate instruments for measuring learning and teacher effectiveness, rather than in terms of philosophical assumptions. (JD)

In a discussion of accountability and performance contracting, the author believes that within a couple of years, performance contracting in its present form will be seen as a rather primitive, simplistic approach to the practice of accountability, but the notion of accountability will continue to be a powerful influence on the educational scene.…

Paper compares a set of multi-item personality scales with a set of comparable example-anchored scales. (Authors/MB)

If empirical studies are to be scientific and of practical value, empirical measurement presupposes theories; these are normative in that they imply conceptions of culture and society. (Author/MB)

Four considerations that enhance the instructional importance of tests are content match, use of feedback, a flagging function, and the increasing tendency to attach sanctions and rewards to standardized test results. These sanctions are apt to force greater attention to the other three characteristics, strengthening the links between instruction…

Urges more active attempts to measure the impact continuing education/community service programs are having on the communities served. Calls for a review of priorities; emphasis on impact-measurable programs; and research on costs, funding sources, participant and recipient identification, changes within the community and effects on individuals.…

The findings in Volume I of the Committee on Ability Testing's report (see ED 213 770 and ED 213 771) are shown to be ambiguous regarding the meaning of ability, vague regarding test validity, and ingenuous regarding test uses and misuse. The neglect of the basic question of what tests measure is noted. (CM)

The author takes a critical look at the development, organization, personnel, and objectives of the Assessment of Performance Unit of England's Department of Education and Science. (SJL)