The purposes of this study were to assess the usefulness of a variety of readability formulas in predicting the relative difficulty of passages, and to explore the contribution of pupils' background to text difficulty. Subjects were 285 special education students in grades 1-9, 117 of whom were based in rural and suburban Minnesota (MN) and 168 of…

Discrepancies among the standards produced by different criterion-referenced standard-setting techniques may be the result of a failure to adequately define the minimally competent candidate. Current research in this area is reviewed in terms of three categories: studies in which no formal assistance in conceptualization is given to judges,…

This investigation of survey research methodology examined the satisfaction differences between anonymous and identified respondents to a client satisfaction survey from a university counseling center. A questionnaire based on the Counseling Services Assessment Blank was mailed to 410 students terminated from counseling during the 1980-81 academic…

An experimental test battery designed to measure several perceptual abilities was administered to 1,368 (51.8% male) paying clients of the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation (JOCRF) in an effort to identify and measure three perceptual abilities: (1) flexibility of closure; (2) speed of closure; and (3) spatial scanning. Subjects, who ranged in…

The role of sample papers (i.e., anchor papers, prototypes, range-finders) in holistic evaluation of writing is discussed. When, where, and how many sample papers are to be selected, and who should perform the selection are covered. The process of sample selection should proceed as follows: (1) a general reading of papers by committee members to…

This paper investigated the reliability and construct validity of a 30-item scale in measuring the attitudes of teachers in Australia toward the integration of handicapped children into regular schools. The Attitude Toward Mainstreaming Scale, which was designed by Larrivee and Cook (1979), has been used in evaluation studies in the United Sates…

The reliability, validity, and score discrepancies of 94 expository essays scored in conference versus remote settings were studied. Focus was on comparing holistic ratings obtained in both settings. Essays written by college freshmen on two different topics were scored by readers working in a conference setting and by different readers working in…

The final report describes the accomplishments of an 18-month study designed to adapt and standardize the 7th Edition of the Stanford Achievement Test with a national, randomly drawn sample of hearing-impaired students. The following objectives were accomplished: (1) test material and special procedures were developed and disseminated; (2) the…

Forty adolescent subjects with behavior problems at home or at school were administered the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests. Subjects ranged in age from 12 to 18, and included 25 males and 15 females. The Passage Comprehension Test for each subject was rescored using three different ceiling criteria: (1) five errors in six consecutive responses,…

A study was designed to investigate the validity and reliability of the adult Career Concerns Inventory, which assesses career concerns of adults of any age and occupation. Subjects, 4 male and 165 female students (ages 23 to 62) enrolled in the graduate nursing program at a southern university, were administered the adult Career Concerns…

The stability of intelligence test scores over time was examined for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). Subjects included 64 children aged 6-16, who had been administered the WISC-R during prior evaluations. These students had been referred because of academic difficulties. One-third of the sample had taken the test…

A study was conducted to determine whether counting correct word sequences is a valid measure of written expression for use in a formative evaluation system for elementary students. A correct word sequence was defined as two adjacent, correctly spelled words that were acceptable within the context of the phrase to a native speaker of the English…

Summarized in this report are the activities undertaken in the development of the Classification of Secondary School Courses (CSSC) for the National Center for Education Statistics' use in coding transcripts of high school students. Fifty-two secondary school course catalogs selected from those collected in the High School and Beyond study…

Holistic evaluation, defined as the grading of an entire piece of writing without tallying or correcting specific errors, is discussed as preferable to discrete point testing or objective measures in assessing writing proficiency of English as a second language (ESL) students. The assessment process, in which the papers are evaluated as excellent,…

This paper evaluates the magnitude of the total error in estimates of the difference between an examinee's domain score and the cutoff score. An observed score based on a random sample of items from the domain, and an estimated cutoff score derived from a judgmental standard setting procedure are assumed. The work of Brennan and Lockwood (1980) is…