Public Law 94-142 mandates the identification and placement of learning disabled children based primarily on the measurement of intelligence. It is, therefore, the responsibility of educational psychologists to use standardized intelligence tests appropriately to accurately and objectively assess a childs' intellectual potential and ability. Three…

In order to provide special education programs that are responsive to the needs of Navajo students and in order to comply with the Rules and Regulations of Public Law 94-142 (The Education for All Handicapped Children Act) and Public Law 95-561 (Education Amendments of 1978), the information in this handbook provides guidance to teachers and…

Most U.S. institutions require international students to meet a minimum English proficiency test requirement for admission to the institution. The language requirements for admission appear to be the same for technical and for academic students. Standardized English proficiency tests purport to be non-specific; yet an analysis of the items on a…

The testing of bilingual students poses particular problems for analyses of performance, item bias, and test adequacy. A test administered in two languages to children selected for their language facility provides a special arena for the study of these problems. The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) was selected because the test content…

The paper discusses the effects of a specific culture, in this case Chilean, on bilingual handicapped students' responses to test items. Even though the tests used were Spanish translations, Ss' responses were influenced by lifestyles, the educational system, and the physical resources available in the classroom setting. Evidence is cited to…

The challenge of educating learners from limited-income families, combined with the challenge of racial integration in the schools, is discussed in this essay. Some learning problems among impoverished children are attributed to segregation, prejudice, and the class-caste system. The inadequacies of segregated schools serving minority groups as…

Two studies were conducted of the effects of sex biased items on achievement test scores obtained by male and female college students. Sex bias was defined as a disproportionate number of references to one sex. Study I used 1,008 classroom test items. Items were classified as male sex referent, female sex referent, no sex referent (neutral), or…

Latent trait theory is used as a basis for a definition of item bias, and an experiment is described in which a test of vocabulary items was not found to be biased when administered to two groups of high school students, one group of 58 black students and the other 168 white students. The experiment for the detection of bias began with separate…

Intended for direct service special education personnel, the paper traces the origin of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142); examines the legislation and litigation which preceded its enactment; discusses its funding mechanism; reviews its relationship to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and looks at several…

This paper considers the role of education in influencing the political, economic, and social status of blacks, focusing particularly on the issue of educational testing and the activities of the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The failure of the educational system to effect significant changes in the status of blacks relative to whites is…

This monograph serves as a nontechnical guide to teachers, counselors, school psychologists, administrators, parents, and others who use the 1974 Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests. The Standards are a concise summary of standards and guidelines for the development, evaluation, interpretation, use, and reporting of information on…

To determine the most appropriate use of interest scales in predicting college major at graduation, data from the Vocational Interest Inventory were analyzed. Subjects were 2,175 college graduates who had taken the inventory as high school juniors, and had graduated in one of 22 majors. The effects upon accuracy of classification and conceptual…

At issue in this case is the validity of specified uses by North Carolina of the National Teacher Examinations (NTE), a standardized testing program produced and administered by Educational Testing Service. This brief amicus curiae is designed to assist the Court in distinguishing among the valid and inappropriate uses of the NTE and the different…

Assessment exercises (items) in three different formats--multiple-choice with an "I don't know" (IDK) option, multiple-choice without the IDK, and open-ended--were placed at the beginning, middle and end of 45-minute assessment packages (instruments). A balanced incomplete blocks analysis of variance was computed to determine the biasing…

This guide is a compilation of factors considered important in the selection of tests for bilingual/bicultural programs. It is intended for use by test selectors or teachers in bilingual education, and does not presume to be exhaustive or authoritative. Basically the guide consists of questions the test selector or teacher should ask when…