LDA (Learning Disabilities Association) of Minnesota receives many calls and emails regarding testing accommodations for large-scale testing programs. Callers include the test-takers themselves, parents, teachers, counselors, advocates, and an occasional attorney. The standardized tests they ask about include the GED, SAT and ACT (for college…

To evaluate test speededness and to derive implications for test program activity, this study reviewed the literature on speed and power, identifying four major approaches to the assessment of speed: the Gulliksen approach, the Cronbach and Warrington approach, the Stafford approach, and the approach of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) as…

This publication is designed to aid teachers, principals, district staff, and other educators in reading, interpreting and using the data from the October 1983 Florida Statewide Assessment. This guide is divided into three main sections: an introduction; a discussion of the forms used to report results, and suuggestions for interpretation and…

Information on competency testing for teacher certification is reprinted exactly from four pages (70-71, 129-130) of a National Center for Education Statistics Publication (volume I of "The Condition of Education: Elementary and Secondary Education 1988," edited by J. D. Stern.) As of the fall of 1987, 45 states had enacted competency testing…

This study considers the use of repeaters when test equating. The subjects consist of five groups of applicants to a professional certification program. Each group comprises first time examinees and repeaters. The procedures include a common item linear equating with nonrandom groups, use of equating chains, and the use of total examinee group…

The first stage of a three-stage speech placement test that can be used by individual campuses of the University of Wisconsin is discussed in this paper. The following applications of this speech theory test are described first: to exempt students from the basic communication course, to place students in an appropriate communication course, or to…

Some issues of concern to administrators of measurement service centers in most campus settings are discussed. Goal setting is an important factor in managing the development of a measurement organization. Goals may be categorized as immediate, long term, or probably unattainable. All types are useful and should be formally identified and…

The operations and effectiveness of the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) counseling and testing programs were reviewed. CDC officials were interviewed; documents pertaining to CDC counseling and testing programs were obtained; and public health departments receiving CDC funds in Colorado, Massachusetts, New…

In order to discover and evaluate the nature of large-scale, standardized assessment programs in colleges and universities in 1986, a survey followed up the Committee on Assessment and Testing (CAT)-sponsored study of 1982. A questionnaire was mailed to speech departments of more than 2,000 institutions, asking first whether the institution has…

The Profile of American Youth study, sponsored by the Department of Defense and the Military Services, in cooperation with the Department of Labor, is documented in this report. The principal objectives of the research project were to assess the vocational aptitudes of a nationally representative sample of youth 18 through 23 years of age and to…

The Atlanta Public Schools administer a systemwide achievement testing program annually to assess the academic progress of students enrolled in kindergarten through the eleventh grades. The 1981 administration of the California Achievement Tests revealed evidence that test-level assignments have improved. The regular education students were tested…

A computerized student record system with a testing system that allows schools to fully utilize testing data is being developed at Oakland Schools in Pontiac, Michigan. Test data are integrated with a tremendous amount of other information. Designed for flexibility, up to 1200 items can be stored within a student record for each test…

This report provides historical background on the origins, development and procedures, of Educational Testing Service's (ETS's) Board of Review. Established in 1969, the Board of Review makes final decisions for all test scores of questionable validity. ETS cancels or withholds scores believed to be invalid. Reasons for invalid scores range from…

A statewide survey of ITED testing programs was conducted to provide more useful materials to test users, better services to Iowa high schools, and to enable high schools to improve the effectiveness of their ITED programs. A two-part questionnaire was developed and sent to the testing directors of 429 public and private high schools in November,…

This report on competency testing utilizes a literature review, examines the state of the art to define competencies, and presents information from the field to delineate programmatic and administrative questions and their implications. Information was collected from school districts implementing minimum competency testing (MCT) programs through…