This book addresses some of the important considerations surrounding the use of tests and assessment procedures when applied to students who are culturally, linguistically, and/or socioeconomically different from mainstream North Americans. Chapter 1 introduces the problems of using standards based on a white Anglo-Saxon perspective to assess and…

The reliability and validity of the Teaching Behaviours Scale (TBS) were examined using a sample of 40 male and female student teachers. The TBS was designed as a self-administered rating scale to evaluate one's teaching effectiveness. The five-point rating scale contains 22 items covering six categories: reinforcement, feedback, presentation,…

Administering measures of students' ethical orientation at various points in the education of business students would be helpful in determining the affective impact of the curriculum. Procedures for eliminating item bias and maximizing the validity and reliability of such measures are discussed and illustrated through actual data collected in the…

The factor structure and reliability of an instrument for measuring attitudes of preservice teachers toward science were studied as part of a 5-year project at the University of Wyoming (Laramie) to improve the teaching of science at the elementary school level. The Attitudes towards Science and Scientists Scale (ATSSS) of J. R. Cummings (1969)…

This report describes the results of adult education students and upper secondary school students on two recently introduced standardized English tests in Sweden. Comparisons of the results are made between these two categories of students because they are entitled to compete, on an equal basis, for admission into restricted intake programs of…

The test-retest reliability of the American Guidance Service (AGS) Early Screening Profiles (ESP)--a battery measuring development in the cognition/language, motor, and self-help/social areas--was examined. The ESP is a nationally normed screening battery for children ages 2 years 0 months through 6 years 11 months. In addition, parent and teacher…

The reliability, sensitivity, and criterion-related validity of concept comparison (CC) ratings and computer-derived multidimensional scaling (MDS) maps were studied as ways of assessing reading comprehension. Fifteen experts (2 district coordinators and 13 reading specialists/special education teachers) were included in this study. Reliability…

Nedelsky (1954) has suggested a procedure for determining the minimum passing score on a multiple-choice test. In this procedure expert judges estimate the probable score of a minimally competent examinee. The technique does not refer to the students' performance data. The purposes of this paper are: (1) to introduce a modification to the Nedelsky…

The higher education community needs measures of the value added to student development by the college experience. The American College Testing Program (ACT) provides a quick, easy method for estimating the extent of student growth in general education. An institution can test seniors with the ACT College Outcome Measures Project (COMP) exam, then…

This research study investigates the validity of the Teacher Locus of Control Scale (TLCS) in a different cultural environment. The scale, developed in the United States by Taylor et al., measures teachers' beliefs about their own potential to influence student performance and classroom events. Specifically, the study investigates the…

From 1946 to 1976, the field of higher education operated in a growth-based mode, encouraged by government decisions and financed by government funds. During the massive recession and exploding federal deficits of the early seventies, however, legislators began examining the real value of higher education, and asking whether higher education was…

Pronunciation is regarded as a valuable subskill in foreign language teaching and testing. Its quality is commonly assessed in a global way by having examinees read aloud. An atomistic test is a more systematic and explicit approach. Such a test would consist of about 40 items, use recorded performances, and draw on an inventory of pronunciation…

This paper describes the development, validation, and use of a research instrument, the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI), designed to assess the environment of small higher education classrooms. The instrument evaluates students' or instructors' perceptions of the following seven psychosocial dimensions of actual or…

The validity and reliability of the Institutional Performance Survey (IPS) as an institutional self-study instrument were assessed, with a focus on four types of validity (content, face, construct, and concurrent) and three types of reliability (test-retest, internal consistency, and rater reliability). It was found that IPS appears to reasonably…

This study was an examination of the usefulness of a statistical regression approach to identify prospective Engineering and Information and Computer Science (ICS) applicants most likely to succeed at the University of California at Irvine (UCI). The specific purpose was to determine the extent to which preadmissions measures such as high school…