Three kinds of instructionally sensitive achievement tests are described which provide useful information on formal schooling proficiencies: placement, progress, and attainment tests. Procedures to design, develop, and empirically verify attainment and placement tests are presented. The methodology is designed to ensure that the test instruments…

Using raw-to-scaled-score conversions derived from test-score equating to link item-parameter estimates from the one-parameter (Rasch) and three-parameter logistic models, this study evaluated an indirect method for converting item response theory estimates to a common scale. Data were taken from Petersen's Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scale…

Writing researchers must be concerned with whether the instruments they are using are constructed as soundly as possible and, if so, whether they are performing the necessary analytic procedures to interpret the results correctly. To examine the logic in the construction of J. A. Daly and M. D. Miller's Writing Apprehension Test and the incomplete…

Meta-analysis techniques were used to determine whether or not there are differences in General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) validity and test scores between samples from the Northern, Southern, and Western United States census areas. The sample consisted of 26,111 subjects from 122 validation studies of the Specific Aptitude Test Battery (SATB).…

Criterion-referenced assessment arguably results in greater reliability, validity and transparency than norm-referenced assessment. This article examines this assertion with reference to an example from a second year undergraduate law unit at the Queensland University of Technology, LWB236 Real Property A. When designing criterion-referenced…

A group of children, in their last term of attendance at nursery schools, were tested on their comprehension of words used in the first books of well-known reading schemes. (Author)

An overview of the articles and definition of terms for the journal topic of domain reference testing. (HB)

Maternal attitudes and behaviors that result in infantilization and thus deter a retarded child from attaining potential were examined in 52 mothers and their borderline or mildly retarded children, 7- to 12-years of age, who had been tested previously. (Author/MC)

Describes the development and testing of an objective measure of moral development, based on Kohlberg's moral stages. (DP)

This document is a detailed module for instructing teacher trainees in the test development process. Upon completion of the package, the student is expected to be able to (1) identify pre-planning steps in test construction, (2) apply the two-way grid method of item classification, (3) develop and evaluate test items, and (4) apply item analysis…

In this study, a subset of the adult functional reading items from the National Reading Survey was administered to a group of approximately 80 adults, together with a set of materials designed to assess decoding skills. The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not the inability to answer the adult reading tasks correctly is…

The premise of this project was to reveal the differences in job-style requirements by using a technique called cognitive-style mapping, the thesis being that each job or occupation requires a person having a particular cognitive style system compatible with the job style or requirements. Cognitive style mapping is a technique used to assess an…

The author of "The Tyranny of Testing" discusses his objections to standardized testing. (IRT)

Investigates the reliability and validity of scores yielded from a new scoring formula. (Author/DEP)