The Test of Pragmatic Language (TOPL) is an individually administered instrument designed to assess pragmatic language skills that can be used with students in kindergarten through high school. It is more specifically intended for use with children, adolescents, and adults with learning disabilities, language delays, reading difficulties, or…

The National Household Education Survey (NHES) is a data collection system of the National Center for Education Statistics, which has the legislative mission of collecting and publishing data on the condition of education in the United States. The NHES provides information on educational issues that are best addressed by contacting households…

Although reliability and validity are characteristics of test data, social scientists often attribute reliability and validity erroneously to the tests themselves. To determine the extent to which this problem exists, 150 reliability and validity studies selected from 3 prominent social science measurement journals over a 3-year period were…

In educational research and evaluation, a sample of subjects usually received some type of programmatic treatment. Outcome scores for these students are then compared with outcome scores of a control or comparison group. M. Lewis and H. McGurk (1972) have pointed out that there are some implicit assumptions when this approach is applied to…

During a period when the reform-minded are very critical of the degree to which testing is actually related to the conditions for which data are employed, authentic assessment offers the opportunity to evaluate learning in settings closely related to the real world. It also allows the evaluator to tailor assessment conditions for individual…

The reliability and validity of three short forms of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children III (WISC-III) were compared. Each of the short forms was a tetrad composed of two verbal and two performance subtests. The first tetrad was selected based primarily on practical considerations, particularly its brevity to administer and score. The…

A method is presented for collecting information about the match between students' learning issues in problem-based learning and teachers' objectives. Subjects were 82 second-year medical students at the University of Limburg in Maastricht (Netherlands) in a problem-based curriculum. During a unit on pregnancy, childbirth, and child development,…

A case is presented for adjusting the scores for free response items in the Advanced Placement (AP) tests. Using information about the rating process from the reliability studies, administrations of the AP test for three subject areas, psychology, computer science, and English language and composition, are analyzed. In the reliability studies, 299…

The relationship between levels of reliability and the power of two bias and differential item functioning (DIF) detection methods is examined. Both methods, the Mantel-Haenszel (MH) procedure of P. W. Holland and D. T. Thayer (1988) and the Simultaneous Item Bias (SIB) procedure of R. Shealy and W. Stout (1991), use examinees' raw scores as a…

Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA) affiliates were surveyed regarding standardized and informal assessment devices they currently used and their frequency of use and effectiveness. A literature review focused on assessment tools and their limitations. The survey was sent to 39 LVA affiliates in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and…

At Golden College (California), student writing samples are holistically scored by pairs of judges on a six-point scale. Judges are allowed to use plus and minus figures, thus converting the integer scale to a decimal scale of evaluation. In 1991, 499 writing samples written as part of the placement testing process for students in the Coast…

The Quest program offers a comprehensive test and questionnaire analysis environment by providing a data analyst (a computer program) with access to the most recent developments in Rasch measurement theory, as well as a range of traditional analysis procedures. This manual helps the user use Quest to construct and validate variables based on…

Although mastery motivation appears to predict school success, individual assessment of mastery motivation is too time consuming and limits the application of this research. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire (DMQ). The study focused on the validity of the measure for Head Start parents,…

The nine-volume Survey Kit is designed to help readers prepare and conduct surveys and become better users of survey results. All the books in the series contain instructional objectives, exercises and answers, examples of surveys in use, illustrations of survey questions, guidelines for action, checklists of "dos and don'ts," and…

The nine-volume Survey Kit is designed to help readers prepare and conduct surveys and become better users of survey results. All the books in the series contain instructional objectives, exercises and answers, examples of surveys in use, illustrations of survey questions, guidelines for action, checklists of "dos and don'ts," and…