The three chapters of this handbook are designed to insure that any school can use teacher-made tests and performance assessments as components of a learning assessment plan. Focus is on criterion-referenced achievement tests developed in Illinois for assessing the cognitive and psychomotor domains of learning. The initial chapter is designed for…

An assessment of the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) City-Wide Testing Program is presented to determine the effects of using customized achievement tests to achieve multiple purposes. The tests are derived from, or related to, the tests in a nationally standardized test battery, but include items written specifically to measure the local curriculum.…

This notebook contains the following conference presentations: "Identifying and Validating Task Lists by Business and Industry for Test/Test Item Development" (Charles Losh); "Conducting a Task Analysis for Competency-Based Test Item Development" (Brenda Hattaway); "Writing and Reviewing Test Items: Multiple Choice,…

The paper identifies and addresses four methodological weaknesses common to most previous studies that have used LISREL confirmatory factor analysis to test for the factorial validity and invariance of a single measuring instrument. Specifically, the paper demonstrates the steps involved in: (1) conducting sensitivity analyses to determine a…

The development and validation of the Home Learning Environment Profile (HLEP) are outlined. The HLEP instrument was designed to assess successful preschool home educational programs for Hawaiian families. The instrument covers sociodemographic, cultural, and environmental factors of Hawaiian families. After an extensive review of published…

The factor structure of responses from 2,833 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders responding to a modified form of the My Education Scale (ME Scale) was examined. The scale measures factors related to school achievement. Students (52% from minority groups) in five middle schools completed the ME inventory. Responses were submitted to a principal…

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has had a competency-based vocational instructor approval process for more than two and one-half decades. Perhaps the most important element in this process has been the vocational competency testing. Although some say that Massachusetts is out of step, others feel that Massachusetts has a well-established testing…

This paper offers some suggestions and cautions concerning the use of the Self-Directed Search (SDS) and the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII). A rationale for separate scoring of interest and ability sections of the SDS is provided, i.e., that correlations between interest and abilities and between abilities and vocational satisfaction…

Item response model applications to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data specifically aimed at the uses of item response models in mathematics item banking are discussed. Approaches for addressing goodness of fit were organized into three categories: Checks on model assumptions, expected features, and additional model…

Validity of the Ohio Vocational Education Achievement Test Program (OVEATP) was studied by determining the correlation between test scores and job placement rates, job success rates, wages, and curriculum content. Performance on the 2 tests in the OVEATP--a general ability test and 1 of 25 occupational tests--was found to be moderately correlated.…

Computer adaptive testing systems are feasible for certification and licensure testing. This is in part due to the availability of extensive yet inexpensive computers. Modern item response theory, combined with computerized adaptive testing, yields a powerful new method of testing which provides greater accuracy and efficiency and less boredom for…

The feasibility of reducing scoring costs for the Test of Spoken English (TSE) by using one rater was investigated. Currently, two raters are used. It was found that, because of the possibility of different standards used by potential raters, it does not appear feasible to use a single rater as the sole determiner of speaking proficiency under the…

The long term predictive validity of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test for Children, when used for the educational placement of exceptional students, was investigated. In 1971, 225 learning disabled elementary school students were tested on the WISC and the Bender. The students were…

Prekindergarten Head Start teachers were trained to administer the Learning Accomplishment Profile (LAP), an objective check list of development in seven areas: gross motor, fine motor manipulation and writing, social, self help, cognitive, and language skills. Data were collected from separate groups of 3, 4, and 5-year old children to ascertain…

The Professional and Administrative Career Examination measures judgment ability using comprehension and logical order of events item types. Since the verbal component of comprehension items is high, and since these items are extremely difficult to write and document, a search was conducted for a simpler item type for assessing judgment. Three…