The study was concerned with the merits of functional level versus nominal level achievement testing. The reliability of test scores when students were tested at their functional levels rather than their nominal levels was examined. Motivation and frustration of students was studied during testing at their functional levels. Another goal of the…

The King Pre-Retirement Checklist (KPRC) was used to assess and compare pre-retirement planning of White to Native American respondents in 10 areas: financial, social, family cohesion, mobility/health, safety/security, productivity, time management, recreation/entertainment, ego integrity, and cognitive processing. Utilizing stratified random…

Argues that there is room for both those tests that focus on stable between-individual gains, and discusses how to evaluate a test along both the psychometric and edumetric dimensions. (Author/JM)

This study tested the validity and reliability of the West Informal Reading Evaluation (WIRE), an unobtrusive screening device that identifies adult learners' reading abilities. Of the 154 students in basic education or high school completion courses who completed one form of WIRE, 123 subjects were administered another reading test that served as…

The pretest-posttest design referred to as Design 2 by Campbell and Stanley (1963) is commonly used in educational research and evaluation. The tenability of the assumption of a zero population difference commonly used with this design is questioned. A nonzero population estimate based on the mean difference observed in test-retest reliability…

To what extent do perceptions of aging vary across social strata? Previous research provides inconsistent findings, although it seems plausible that attitudes toward old age differ with age, social class, and ethnicity of respondents. However, issues of measurement (construct validity; reliability; dimensional equivalency) raise doubts on the…

Examines confusions that result from the use of the words "standardization,""reliability,""objectivity," and "validity" in connection with testing. (IRT)

These two related papers provide information on teacher attitudes toward black dialect use in the classroom and the measurement of such attitudes. The first paper reports on data from 176 administrators, counselors, teachers, and student teachers, revealing significant relationships between a teacher's definition of black dialect, attitudes toward…

The secondary level English proficiency (SLEP) test is a group administered 150 item multiple-test of English language proficiency that includes two subscores and eight different item types. It is designed to assess a foreign student's readiness for English medium instruction at the secondary level. This paper reports on two studies which were…