A live tailored achievement testing study was conducted to compare procedures based on the one- and three-parameter logistic models. Previous studies yielded inconclusive results because of the procedures by which item calibrations were linked and because of the item selection procedures. Using improved procedures, 83 college students were tested…

The Racial Attitudes and Perceptions Survey (RAPS) was developed to obtain information from black and white military personnel, including reports of the frequencies of specific discriminatory behaviors and the tension levels associated with each race. The instrument was evaluated in terms of its construct validity and its reliability. Attitudes…

For Title I evaluations, it may be appropriate to test out-of-level; that is, to override publisher's recommendations concerning the difficulty, length, and content appropriate for a particular grade. It is seldom necessary, however, to move more than one grade down. If the mean is substantially higher than the median, then some pupils will have…

The reliability and validity of the Student Opinion Survey of Teaching (SOST) were assessed, and normative data were provided for judging its value in the evaluation of faculty teaching. Data were collected from 2,229 students enrolled in 93 classes taught by 53 instructors in 12 academic disciplines at the University of Windsor, Ontario. Internal…

A chronicle of the problems faced in an attempt to collect data on sociology curriculum trends in California's community college system is presented. The project was initiated in an effort to determine if other colleges in the system were experiencing the same difficulties with curriculum and enrollment in sociology courses being encountered by…

Three methods of item selection were used to select sets of 38 items from a 50-item verbal analogies test and the resulting item sets were compared for internal consistency, standard errors of measurement, item difficulty, biserial item-test correlations, and relative efficiency. Three groups of 1,500 cases each were used for item selection. First…

Six approaches to assessing test item bias were examined: transformed item difficulty, point biserial correlations, chi-square, factor analysis, one parameter item characteristic curve, and three parameter item characteristic curve. Data sets for analysis were generated by a Monte Carlo technique based on the three parameter model; thus, four…

The validity and reliability of essay scores were examined by comparing the mean scores assigned to good and poor quality essay responses of different lengths written by high school sophomores. In-service and pre-service social studies teachers graded essay responses to a test question requiring knowledge of the Constitutional provisions for…

REACTING TO A PAPER WRITTEN BY H. NED SEELYE (SEE "LANGUAGE LEARNING," VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1-2, 1966, PAGES 77-85), THE ARTICLE EXAMINES SOME OF THE QUESTIONS RAISED BY THE ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH TESTS THAT WOULD ACCURATELY MEASURE THE ABILITY OF CULTURAL STRANGERS TO ADAPT TO A FOREIGN CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT. IN ORDER TO CLARIFY THE PURPOSES OF SUCH…

In a study on improvement of basic motor skills by educable mentally retarded (EMR) children with special training in a sport and game situation, 21 EMR boys and 19 EMR girls (aged 4-1 to 10-1) were divided into an experimental and a control group, matched by chronological age, IQ, sex, and pretest scores on the Basic Skills Test (reliability .97)…

The purpose of the study was twofold: first, to determine the reliability of a paired-associate (PA) task when used as a test of learning proficiency; and second, to assess the relationship between performance on the PA task and on IQ tests as a function of grade level (kindergarten, first, third) and socioeconomic status (high, low). The…

The effect of stimulus familiarity on the comprehension of polar adjectives by preschool children was examined by administering a perceptual judgment task. The children's ability to indicate the correct object illustrating a particular word was assessed. Antonyms representing opposite dimensions of quantity, height, length, or size were presented.…

Unlike the past models guiding cross-cultural psychological research, a new paradigm facilitates multiple level investigations by incorporating both culture-specific (nested) and culture-general (crossed) independent variables within its partially-hierarchical framework. Based upon the generalizability analysis, this model generates sequential…

Sullivan's Ethical Reasoning Scale contains three dilemmas with response pairs representing Kohlberg's stages of moral development. In Kohlberg's first three stages, goodness is equated with lack of punishment, usefulness, and approval, respectively. Good is seen as conformity to rule and ruler in stage four, and stage five comprises…

This paper reports the results of an evaluative statistical analysis of the instrument employed for student evaluation of faculty at Oakton Community College (Illinois). The analysis was performed because the locally devised instrument had never been subjected to systematic study of reliability or validity, and because a review of pertinent…