The various commercially available materials used to teach students test-taking skills offer contradictory advice on the issue of whether reading passages on standardized tests should be read before or after the corresponding test items. This study examined the effects on reading comprehension scores of training 606 urban fourth graders to use one…

A three-part correlational study examined the explanatory power of the Lexile theory of reading comprehension, which was based on the semantic and syntactic components of prose. Correlations were performed between the item difficulties of nine nationally normed reading comprehension tests and computer generated difficulties which were reported in…

Though item bias statistics are widely recommended for use in test development and analysis, problems arise in their interpretation. This research evaluates logistic test models and computer simulation methods for providing a frame of reference for interpreting item bias statistics. Specifically, the intent was to produce simulated sampling…

In both 1960 and 1980, the same test of spatial-visual ability was given to national probability samples of high school seniors in the United States. The students in 1960 were participants in Project TALENT and in 1980 were participants in "High School and Beyond." In addition, a reading comprehension test was given to the 1960 students…

Following a review of empirical research on teacher feedback to students' wrong responses, this paper describes a paradigm for use with direct instruction materials, applying the feedback model to comprehension tasks from traditional reading and science textbooks. The next section details a classification system for wrong responses grouped into…

As part of a one-year trial project, in fall 1981, Oakton College students who scored below 35 on the Educational Testing Service Test of Written Expression were not permitted to enroll in C101 (an introductory communications course) until they had successfully completed a developmental communications course or had retaken and passed the exam. To…

Considerable research has been conducted on the effect of anxiety on academic achievement. The most consistent finding is that high anxiety is associated with low performance, particularly at the elementary school level. To explain this situation, some researchers have hypothesized that anxiety debilitates students' attention span or time-on-task…

The Reading Test for New York State Elementary Schools is designed to determine the most difficult prose text a student can read with comprehension. Test uses described include evaluating the student's current level of achievement; determining reading difficulty levels for instruction; measuring growth of comprehension; determining statewide…

The "Test Development Notebook" is a resource designed for the preparation of tests of literal comprehension for students in grades 1 through 12. This volume contains 200 multiple-choice cloze exercises taken from textbooks in science, and the accompanying answer key. Each exercise carries the code letter of the section to which it belongs. The…

Designed to be a tool for curriculum and instructional development consistent with assessment of the state objectives in reading, this teaching and testing guide provides a summary of the skills that should be considered instructionally and how each objective is tested. Information is included on state objectives for reading teachers for grades 7…

This collection, including the proceedings of a colloquium at TESOL 1979, includes the following papers: (1) "Classification of Oral Proficiency Tests," by H. Madsen and R. Jones; (2) "A Theoretical Framework for Communicative Competence," by M. Canale and M. Swain; (3) "Beyond Faith and Face Validity: The Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix and the…

Intended for adult education English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) teachers and administrators, this guide provides information for identifying appropriate testing instruments and integrating them into an overall testing and assessment program. Chapter 1 focuses on testing procedures and covers organization of the testing program, test selection,…

E. Boder and S. Jarrico have developed a test designed to measure the cognitive deficits underlying reading disabilities, which they claim will identify two basic reader subtypes: those with deficits in auditory-linguistic processing skills (dysphonetic) and those with the inability to process visual-spatial information (dyseidetic). To examine…

The Primary Reading Program was initiated in 117 classrooms in 40 North Carolina schools, to improve the reading achievement of the primary school students. The same number of control classrooms were also selected for comparison. Features of the program included increased funding for instructional materials; use of volunteers and teacher aides for…

A comparison of four frequently used standard setting methods for deriving cut-off scores with respect to the expected performance of minimally competent students, is presented in this paper. Ten Kansas Competency Based Tests, in reading and mathematics, were administered across five grade levels in a state-wide minimal competency testing program.…