A collection is presented containing four papers dealing with the subject of criterion-referenced testing. This first paper deals with criterion-referenced tests utilizing norm-referenced test items. Aspects covered include a defense of norm-referenced and criterion referenced tests and a justification for the adaptation of norm-referenced test…

Fifty-three high school males took a minicourse on library usage. All were randomly assigned a topic and given response sheets requiring the use of dictionaries, encyclopedias, periodicals, and books. In a discussion session, all received instructional handouts. Students were assigned either to evaluating two peers' pretests (experimental) or…

The purpose of this study was to develop an evaluation instrument to assess young children's language communication skills. Two parallel sets of Language Communication Skills Tasks (LCST) were developed. Each task was developed to measure the effectiveness of the child's communication skills as both a speaker and listener. The subjects were 112…

In accordance with the normal replacement cycle, a new form of the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test (AFOQT) was developed for implementation in Fiscal Year 1972. The new form is designated Form L. It resembles other recent forms in type of content, organization, and norming strategy. Like other forms, it yields pilot, navagation-technical,…

A battery of instruments intended to predict on-the-job performance of patrolmen was administered to civil service police applicants, and the resulting data were factor analyzed. The factor structures which emerge closely resemble the intended structures and appear promising for planned predictive studies of criterion performance on the job. The…

Checking of parametric assumptions is an often ignored step in the inferential process. A misconception regarding symmetry (one aspect of "robustness") is prevalent: that in nonsymmetric distributions the mean and median are always non-coincidental. It is to this fallacious point that the discussion is directed. A generally accepted index of…

The basic objective of the study was to determine the validity of four new indices of item quality. Three of these were based on analyses of differential, empirical weights for item choices, and the fourth was designed to measure the relative attractiveness of distracters. A secondary objective was to ascertain the validity of the conventional…

A review of the socioeconomic status (SES) concept was conducted to determine whether an already established index could be used in Toronto's Study of Achievement of children from kindergarten through the elementary grades. The examination of the SES concept and the results of analyses concerning the applicability of the Blishen Socio-Economic…

The limits, function and procedures of operational evaluation are described. Operational evaluation can only begin once a project activity is underway. Its function is diagnostic but not prescriptive. Basic tasks include specifying objectives, defining criteria, establishing priorities, identifying cost factors, obtaining or developing measurement…

The study was designed to construct and evaluate a language inventory that would measure language ability of severely retarded children, aged 6 1/2 to 10 years. Five of R. M. Gagne's eight types of learning were chosen for identifying language ability, and eight subtests were developed to accompany these learning types. The subtests were stimulus…

Criterion-referenced measurement (CRM) has received increasing attention in regular education. However, it is in education for handicapped children that CRM's flexibility for individualization of both instruction and evaluation become even more fully realized. Research is described on one of the first CRM systems (Individual Achievement Monitoring…

The present study was concerned with several currently unanswered questions, two of which are: what is an empirically determined ratio of multiple choice to equivalent true-false items which can be answered in a given amount of time?; and for achievement test items administered within a classroom situation, which of the two formats under…

The purposes of this paper are to (1) discuss general issues related to a newly proposed methodology for item content and construct validation and (2) apply the new method in the context of developing a scale for measuring attitudes toward black people. Latent partition analysis was proposed and applied for the study of item content validity using…

The test "Measurement About Science and Scientists" (Project Physics, Form 1) was prepared by choosing 101 items from the "Test on Understanding Science" and from the "Science Process Inventory" on the basis of their ability to indicate changes in students' knowledge. The method of building derived tests is described,…

An instruction system is viewed as a "system of coordinated sets of instructional aids and activities designed to be as efficient as possible." The nature of an instructional system, cost-effectiveness ratios, automated instruction, and computer-based instruction are some of the topics considered. The general functions that must be designed into…