This study investigates whether item characteristic curves are the same for black students as for white students in the United States. The data analyzed were the answer sheets of 2269 black students and 2285 white students taking the 85-item Verbal Section of the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test. The study of item characteristic curves is…

Argues that the Coleman results make a great deal more sense when the test score results are interpreted as reflecting aptitude instead of achievement. (Author/ROF)

Describes a simplified method for converting raw scores to standard scores and transforming them to "T-scores" for easy comparison of performance. Obtaining letter grades from T-scores is discussed. A reading list is included. (GH)

Investigations show that the nature of conditions affecting motivation influences test performance more than variations in the manner of presentation or in the program strategy. These findings are considered more useful in the designing of teacher programs than reliance on a computer. (Text is in German.) (Author/AM)

One of a series of reports on the International Project for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (in Mathematics).

In 1977, the Portland School District introduced a locally developed achievement testing program for Grades 3 through 8 in reading and mathematics. In 1979, language arts tests were added. These three test series comprise the Portland Achievement Levels Testing Program. The new tests were created by district personnel to measure student…

Academic psychology has long been composed of two disciplines, one experimental and one correlational. These two disciplines each developed their own method of studying structure in data: multidimensional scaling (MDS) and factor analysis. Both methods use similar kinds of input data, proximity measures on object pairs. Both represent the object…

This monograph is an overview and state of the art paper for the use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in the health professions. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a questionnaire which makes it possible to test and put to practical use that part of the personality theory of C.G. Jung which is concerned with psychological type. Nine areas of…

This paper is divided into two parts. The purpose of Part I is the review of some of the history of school average norms, beginning with Dr. E. F. Lindquist's call for such norms in 1948; the development of such norms for standardized achievement tests; current policies and practices regarding aggregated school data; and a presentation of norms…

This paper reports an in-depth study of Moore and Sutman's Scientific Attitude Inventory (SAI) and of the 30 studies in which the instrument has been used. Findings from these 30 research studies reveal a wealth of information including: (1) conflicting results when similar treatments are used by different investigators; (2) varied values of the…

It is shown that empirical mental test P - P plots are approximately equal to theoretical item-item curves, at least for long tests administered to many people. This result is important because it leads to (1) a distribution free method for estimating points on item-item curves; (2) a general method for defining estimates of item parameters; and…

The utility and precision of scaling 200 relatively short reading passages were analyzed using a Rasch-based measurement technique as compared to readability estimates using the Spache or Dale-Chall formulas. In addition, a regression model was specified for predicting the grade level of a text a student could literally comprehend based on…

Recent research is summarized on interest assessment procedures as it bears on the issue of sex restrictiveness. Studies documenting sex restrictiveness in widely used interest inventories are cited, and alternatives to sex-restrictive interest assessment are suggested. Separate consideration is given to basic interest scales and to occupational…

Because it is difficult to ascertain the dimensionality of a test composed of binary items through the use of factor analysis alone, a method is proposed that combines item characteristic curve (ICC) theory with factor analysis. Factor structure of tetrachoric correlations is distorted by non-normal distribution of ability. Item characteristics…