The paper reviews the ways in which the cloze testing procedure measures the reading comprehension skills of students in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. The construction and scoring of the test and the interpretation of the scores are discussed and the reliability and validity of the cloze procedure for testing reading skills…

A pilot essay was included in the 1985 Spring and Fall administrations of the Medical College Admission Test. A sample of 320 of the essays written by Fall examinees who had expressed an interest in allopathic medicine was used to calculate interrater reliability estimates. Sixteen of 20 readers who had been trained by White's suggestions for…

This study was designed to investigate the empirical consequences of building tests for which the size of the difference in average scores between Black and White examinees is made to be as large and as small as possible within certain constraints. Test forms for two item types were developed that maximized or minimized the differences in average…

First-, second-, and third-year students enrolled in an introductory educational psychology class at Texas A&M University in College Station were administered either a pencil-and-paper or computerized version of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory. The same or other version of the test was administered after 2 weeks. Focus is on equivalence…

To determine if there is a distinction between the forensics community's idea of quality and that of the general population, tournament rankings of forensics judges and those of a lay audience were compared. Undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of speech related courses were asked to attend rounds of competition at a midwest collegiate…

The sources of variability in the Angoff standard-setting procedure, when applied to the Alabama High School Graduation Examination (AHSGE), were examined. The sources of variability examined are judges, rounds (replications), competencies (items), and interactions among these three sources. After training, the judges were given a statement of a…

Scores of two groups of White and Hispanic children at 11 age levels from 2.5 years to 12.5 years were assessed. The scores were drawn from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC), an individually administered assessment battery designed to measure intelligence and achievement and intended for minority group assessment. Reliability…

Early screening programs to determine learning problems in preschool children are evaluated. A review of early identification literature indicates considerable difficulty in describing screening results and determining when a screening program accurately identifies those students believed to be "at risk." The authors propose several…

The study of teachers as decision-makers is a recent paradigm in educational research. This decision-making approach considers the teacher as an active professional engaged in various decision-making activities prior to and during instruction. This paper describes a naturalistic research design employed in a recent dissertation that investigated…

An achievement test for the secondary school vocational electricity programs in South Carolina was constructed by a research coordinating unit (RCU) project. A trade and industrial supervisor and consultant, three electricity instructors, and four industry representatives comprised an advisory committee that participated in its development. Three…

Texts on measurement theory report many studies on the consistency of intelligence test scores, but the stability of academic achievement over the school years has never been adequately studied. To investigate the stability of achievement test scores from fourth grade to college, a random sample of 100 students was selected from a 1978 graduating…

The occurrence of discrepant, or non-contiguous, scores during holistic scoring of writing proficiency is usually blamed on variables of the test reader or external factors. It is hypothesized that characteristics of the essays themselves sometimes may generate discrepancies in essay scoring. Data from 152 essays of college sophomores in teacher…

This study examines differences and similarities in the information provided by direct and indirect measures of writing from the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP). The indirect measure was a 72-item multiple-choice test, while the direct measure involved responding to two essay prompts. The 40-minute multiple-choice test can be…

A model and method for developing a valid and reliable paper-and-pencil test for evaluating the technical knowledge of baseball coaches in the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) in Canada are discussed. Development of a general theoretical and operational model for the evaluation of NCCP coaches in all sports are also studied. The…

A pilot project determined whether a proposed essay addition to the new General Educational Development (GED) test batteries, scheduled for release in 1988, could be successfully administered and scored in local test centers with an acceptable degree of test reliability and validity. Conducted in cooperation with the GED Testing Service, the…