The most significant findings and recommendations of the 1975 Oregon Statewide Reading Assessment are highlighted in this summary intended for a nontechnical audience. A criterion-referenced test was developed to test the reading achievement of fourth graders in the areas of word attack skills, comprehension skills, study skills and vocabulary…

The purpose of this study was to describe selected tests which have been used to yield instructional levels in reading; to examine the bases on which such tests have been designed in light of their relevance to instructional level; and to inspect the relation of test standards to selected methods of teaching reading in the elementary school. The…

This booklet describes an alternative approach to testing the mathematical abilities of elementary school students. The booklet is highly critical of the use of standardized tests for many purposes, and both the introduction and an appendix are devoted to those criticisms. This project for Tests of Reasonable Quantitative Understanding of the…

The purpose of this study was to compare certain characteristics of multiple-choice (MC) and complex multiple-choice (CMC) achievement tests designed to measure knowledge in medical-surgical nursing. Each of 268 junior and senior nursing students from four midwestern schools responded to one of four test forms. MC items were developed by…

Much of the intrinsic wealth of planning and instructional information available from achievement testing programs goes untapped in typical reporting procedures. Large-scale programs reporting only pupil scores and the results of aggregating those scores stop far short of the purposes intended and fail to realize the potential of such information.…

In 1971-72, 1,045 school districts in the State of Texas provided supplementary instruction and/or services to educationally/economically disadvantaged children through the use of Federal funds made available under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The number of pupils who have participated in these projects has…

This paper explores the effects of item choice on ability estimation when using a tailored testing procedure based on the Rasch simple logistic model. Most studies of the simple logistic model imply that ability estimates are totally independent of the items used, regardless of the testing procedure. This paper shows that the ability estimate is…

In order to screen out items which may be biased against some ethnic group prior to the final selection of items in test construction, a statistical technique for assessing item bias was developed. Based on a theoretical formulation of R. B. Darlington, the method compares the performance of individuals who belong to different ethnic groups, but…

Problems in current course evaluation methods are discussed and an alternative method is described for the construction, analysis, and interpretation of a test to evaluate instructional programs. The method presented represents a different approach to the traditional overreliance on standardized achievement tests and the total scores they provide.…

The purpose of the study was to examine reading gains of Job Corps students receiving instruction individually or in small groups, and to compare the differential effects of these gains on social and personal adjustment of the students. Thirty girls were randomly assigned to each of two experimental groups; individual instruction (II) and small…

Act Number 307, Public Acts of Michigan 1969, mandates that the Department of Education provide annual assessment of pupil achievement in basic skills -- reading, vocabulary, English expression and mathematics. The purpose of the assessment program is to provide information about groups of children for decision makers at the state level. A…

The definition of critical reading and also the relationship between critical reading and critical thinking, reading, and scholastic aptitude and achievement tests were investigated. The Reading Comprehension Test; Test of Critical Thinking, Form G; Nelson-Denny Reading Test, Form A; Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Tests, Form A; and Florida…

Despite their advantages over other assessment techniques, current achievement and ability tests are not especially efficient sources of information for the range of educational decisions for which they are used and relied upon. Two major types of tests, criterion-referenced and norm-referenced, and two types of use, student evaluation and program…

Research since 1960 on the selection of students and the prediction of student success in occupational education is the focus of this review. In a systematic search of the literature, efforts were made to obtain identified materials. The review, written to serve both the researcher interested in bibliographical data, design and methodology, and…

A sample of 353 young men, inducted into the Army under the category of "Project 100,000" personnel, participated in an experimental training program using the Learning 100 multimedia communication skills system in an attempt to correct academic deficiencies. The sample, which had scored below 4th grade reading level, was divided into 14…