Seven prepared papers, with questions from the audience and answers by participants make up the proceedings of this conference on minimum competency testing. A number of conceptual and technical problems were raised, as well as questions about the effects of minimum competency testing on the curriculum and the psychological effects of the program…

If English teachers are an endangered species, as is sometimes said, they must attempt to survive by adapting to a changing environment and explaining their work to the public. Community college teachers should teach critical reading skills by starting with materials relevant to students' lives, should teach writing by stressing conceptual skills…

As part of a series of annual evaluations of the knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes of Massachusetts public-school students, this report represents the assessment of basic skills attainment of grade 12 students. The first three chapters contain a summary of the design and methodology of the testing program. The remaining five chapters…

SINCE NO TESTS OF SPANISH SPEAKING ABILITY AT THE ELEMENTARY LEVEL WERE AVAILABLE WHEN THE PROJECT BEGAN (1960), IT DEVISED THREE CAREFULLY CONSTRUCTED ITEMS TESTING THE SEPARATE ASPECTS OF THE SPEAKING SKILL--PHONETIC ACCURACY, STRUCTURE, AND EASE AND NATURALNESS OF EXPRESSION. A RANDOM SELECTION OF FIFTH-GRADE PUPILS WERE TESTED INDIVIDUALLY,…

Since 1972 Western Kentucky University has been evaluating graduates from the teacher education program via the Teacher Preparation Evaluation Program. Participants were identified during student teaching and followed for five years with extensive data collected during the first, third and fifth years. Part of these data included a new scale, the…

This manual is designed to accompany reports prepared by the Pennsylvania Department of Education for the 505 school districts in that state, summarizing results of the Educational Quality Assessment. The normative sample is described as being stratified on two dimensions: district enrollment and wealth. Administrative procedures are summarized.…

The purpose of this research was to develop composites of subtests of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) such that each composite score would be reliable and the various composite scores would be factorially independent of each other. Factor analysis was used to cluster the tests into composites based on the underlying…

Florida State University instituted a mandatory system to be used in making promotion and tenure decisions, in which teaching faculty were rated by their students. Under an agreement with Michigan State University, the Student Instructional Rating System (SIRS) was adapted for use on the Florida State campus. Since the data were to be used to…

This paper provides a theoretical discussion of educational program evaluation. Psychometric theory and developmental psychology are compared as they pertain to the testing of children. The nature of change in childhood makes it necessary to examine the assumptions and goals related to the testing of children as a means of evaluating educational…

The Adult Career Planning Inventory (ACPI) was designed to elicit from clients their self-perceptions of aptitudes, interests, past experience, physical abilities, and education, and to compare these perceptions with actual job requirements as taken from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). The ACPI is a reusable eight-page booklet…

The revised and renamed Strong Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) is examined to determine if the occupational and sex biases present in the older Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) were eliminated. It is concluded that an occupational bias (favoring professional rather than blue-collar occupations) still exists in the SCII, although there is…

This conference focuses upon various aspects of testing within a society, and upon technical advances in measurement. Philip H. DuBois's paper deals with China, a society dominated by tests, from 1115 BC--1905 AD. Donald W. Fiske discusses the effect of testing on the individual in modern America in his paper, "The Subject Looks at…

This manual is part of a kit consisting of four documents which bring together different types of items that measure a number of career and occupational development (COD) objectives developed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). (NAEP--which completed a national survey measuring the achievement of knowledge, skills,…

Six school districts in California provided data on the Public School Version of the Adaptive Behavior Scale for 373 children, ages three through six, who were enrolled in regular and trainable mentally retarded (TMR) preschool programs. The results of the study are reported as means and standard deviations of the domain scores for Part One and…

Scores on the Prescriptive Reading Inventory, the California Achievement Tests, 1970 Edition, the the Short Form Tests of Academic Aptitude were obtained for black pupils and representative samples of pupils in grades 1-3. These scores were compared in an attempt to asses bias in the Prescriptive Reading Inventory, a criterion-referenced…