Reports on the methods and findings of a study conducted to test the validity of the College Outcome Measures Project (COMP) objective test for use with nontraditional program graduates. Describes the COMP, which assesses skills related to functioning in social institutions; using science, technology, and the arts; communicating; solving problems;…

This paper presents the development of a new measure of locus of control for adults, the Internal Control Index. Analysis of a field test and a junior college administration indicated an estimated reliability of .84, the presence of a strong principal component, two replicable factors, and evidence for convergent validity. (Author/BW)

Describes a study which investigated the intersentential sensitivity of the rational deletion cloze procedure. Eighty-four college-level students of German were divided into two sub-groups; one group completed a sequential cloze task, the other completed a scrambled cloze task. There were not significant differences in performance on the two…

Presents the Claydon College Drinking Questionnaire, an instrument which was developed to evaluate the alcohol education program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Data indicate it is a highly reliable and valid instrument. (Author/BL)

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)

A procedure is proposed for determining whether correlations obtained between two measures justify the assumption that the measures are identical. It is intended especially for small samples. In the example, the performance scales of two intelligence tests were administered to 32 deaf adolescents. (GDC)

The Survey on Economic Attitudes (SEA), which consists of two affective domain instruments for measuring student attitudes toward economics and their relative economic attitude sophistication, was found to be valid and reliable. Uses and limitations of the SEA are also discussed. The survey is included in the article's appendix. (Author/RM)

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the comparative validity of the Information and Vocabulary subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), the WAIS Verbal and Full Scale Intelligence Quotients, the verbal scores of several standardized scholastic aptitude tests, and their corresponding composite scores relative to a college…

The purpose of this study was to provide evidence of the validity of two measures of social intelligence and a self-esteem scale relative to math and reading achievement. The social intelligence measures showed modest degrees of concurrent and predictive validity; the academic self-esteem measure failed to demonstrate its validity. (Author/PN)

The reliability and validity of the Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale was examined for 350 American community college students, ranging in age from 17 to 59. The attributions of ability, effort, context, and luck emerged as well as distinctions between attributions related to academic success or failure. (Author/PN)

Providing additional data concerning the reliability and discriminant validity of Aiken's Enjoyment of Mathematics and Value of Mathematics Scales resulted in a degree of correlation between scales lower than for Aiken's data. Also, the view that the scales measure different aspects of attitude toward mathematics was supported. (PN)

Uses case study data from three young readers to examine the assumption that commercial informal reading inventories are as reliable as teacher made tests. Questions that assumption. (FL)

Examines studies of literacy instruction in American schools during the past 10 years both in terms of the notions that guide current practice and in terms of recent conceptions of literacy. Concludes that current literacy instruction limits students. Proposes an alternative view of instruction grounded in the concept of instructional scaffolding.…

Reviews the Spadafore Diagnostic Reading Test, which is used to determine decoding and reading comprehension levels and to give detailed diagnostic information. Concludes that it is not an improvement on similar inventories published previously. (HOD)

The presently viewed role and utility of measures of instructional sensitivity are summarized. A case is made that the rationale for the assessment of instructional sensitivity can be applied to all achievement tests and should not be restricted to criterion-referenced mastery tests. (Author/BW)