The need to address adolescent literacy, with a focus on English Language Learners, has created a growing realization that instructional practices need to change. Two recent studies conducted by the National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth and the Carnegie Corporation of New York's Panel on Adolescent English Language…

This study explored whether hand location affected spatial attention. The authors used a visual covert-orienting paradigm to examine whether spatial attention mechanisms--location prioritization and shifting attention--were supported by bimodal, hand-centered representations of space. Placing 1 hand next to a target location, participants detected…

The resumption of skilled performance following a period of no practice is often characterized by motor activity of a lower quality than that demonstrated prior to the rest period. This phenomenon, termed warm-up decrement, is usually brief, lasting for only a few trials or minutes of postrest practice. This study attempted to determine the effect…

A model was developed to provide a uniform method for vocational and technical education content experts to develop test items (written questions and performance measures) that are congruous with course-level exit competencies. The model is essentially a closed-system approach in that specific action verbs must be identified and operationally…

The purpose for adopting the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) at the University of Iowa was to enable students to satisfy certain graduation requirements thus freeing them to take other courses. This purpose is being accomplished without many early (or "cheap") graduations. (Author/PG)

Addressing issues facing vocational education on the topic of performance testing, this handbook consists of a collection of seventeen commissioned papers and reactions to the papers. Two papers are presented on each of the following types of issues that must be considered before a performance test can be constructed: philosophical, technical,…

THE HUMAN OPERATOR AFFECTS TOTAL PERFORMANCE OF SEMI-AUTOMATED SYSTEMS, BUT LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT HIS SOURCES OF ERROR, PARTICULARLY WITH RESPECT TO RESPONSE TIME. UNDER CONTROLLED LABORATORY CONDITIONS, 37 FRESHMEN AND SOPHOMORE GIRLS ATTENDING JUNIOR COLLEGE WERE ASKED TO GUESS A SERIES OF RANDOM NUMBERS GENERATED BY AN ELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEM…

Fair, valid, and reliable measurement of dependent variables is a concern in personnel evaluation studies. Performance tests, that is, job or work sample tests, situational tests, and job learning or trainability tests, are being used with increasing frequency as measurement techniques capable of meeting these needs. The three categories of…

The objective of this research was to develop optimum training conditions in the use of teacher performance tests (TPT). In order to attain this objective, TPT's were used as assessment instruments. This was believed necessary because the laws of learning indicate that improvement will not occur unless reinforcement follows learning. Subjects were…

Performance tests are used in training evaluation to (1) certify student achievement, and (2) diagnose weaknesses in the instructional system. Proficiency measures that focus on task outcomes (product) normally provide data relevant to the first purpose, whereas measures of how the tasks are carried out (process) pertain to the second. Time or…

The relationship betwee n a composite of student entry characteristics--unit pretest score, number of skills to be mastered in the unit, the student's intelligence quotient and age, units previously mastered--and the amount of time required to complete one of four units of D or E level mathematics was investigated. Beta weights for the regression…

A model for computer-assisted branched testing was developed, implemented, and evaluated in the context of an elementary school using the system of Individually Prescribed Instruction. A computer was used to generate and present items and then score the student's constructed response. Using Wald's sequential probability ratio test, the computer…

The teaching performance test is a recently developed assessment technique designed to sharpen our teacher competence evaluation procedures. It assesses a teacher's ability to promote learner mastery of prespecified instructional objectives during a relatively short lesson designed by the teacher. The principal contributions of this paper are the…

An experiment to assess the value of a shadowgraph simulator for driver training is described. Two groups of 36 pupils with no previous driving experience, and matched for age and sex, were taught to drive up to the standard of the DOE driving test. The pupils in one of the groups received their first three hours instruction on a shadowgraph…