Gender differences have been reported in the United States in the areas of mathematical reasoning favoring males and verbal abilities favoring females. Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress Science Assessment also have consistently revealed small gender differences favoring males. This paper reports gender differences in…

Pearce Academic Center for Excellence, Project PACE, involved one English/language arts teacher providing individualized instruction in the mechanics of basic English (e.g., parts of speech, rules on capitalization and punctuation, spelling, sentence writing, and library and dictionary skills) to grade seven and eight retainees in language arts…

The present investigation represents a systematic effort to determine whether handicapped children have been included in the development of test norms, items, and indices of reliability and validity. It analysed up-to-date user manuals and technical supplements of 27 well known and widely used aptitude and achievement tests. Study procedure…

The advantages of computerized adaptive testing are discussed, and an example illustrates its use in sixth grade mathematics. These tests are administered at a computer terminal, and the test items to be administered are selected according to the difficulty level appropriate to the individual's ability. Tailoring increases the psychometric…

This report is designed to provide numerical data about student performance on the curriculum of the Boston (Massachusetts) Public Schools (BPS) as measured by curriculum referenced tests (CRTs). BPS Department of Educational Testing analyzed data from the 1986 CRT final exams in: reading and language arts (grades K-8), high school English (six…

Studies carried out over a 12-year period addressed fundamental questions on the use of Rasch-based item banks. Large field tests administered in grades 3-8 of reading, mathematics, and science items, as well as standardized test results were used to explore the possible effects of many factors on item calibrations. In general, the results…

Academic and demographic information are obtained annually on students at General College (GC) in order to adjust programs to student needs. In 1981, data were gathered on students' sex, age, ethnicity, home county, parents' characteristics, educational background and objectives, self-assessment of basic skills, counseling needs, anticipated…

Basic Achievement Skills Individual Screener (BASIS) was designed by the Psychological Corporation to yield criterion-referenced information as well as normative scores. The constraints imposed by this dual purpose were increased by the requirements inherent in an individually-administered format and the short testing time consistent with test use…

Content, instructional, and curricular validity, as related to certification tests, are examined. All three deal with content validity but the domain differs among the the three. Certification tests must have instructional validity, i.e., the test must be valid both with respect to the domain used to define the minimum competencies and the…

This paper highlights the results of analysis of achievement trends, described in report "Changes in Student Performance by Achievement Class and Model Class." This paper extrapolates from the complete study those findings that have the most direct implications for education policy and decision makers. Overall, students in the lowest…

Educators designing procedures for identifying students as learning disabled are faced with serious technical difficulties. A student with a learning disability is one who "has a severe discrepancey between achievement and intellectual ability" in one or more designated areas. The methods of quantifying achievement, intellectual ability,…

To support the construct validity of a locally developed, sixth grade reading achievement test, an investigation of factorial invariance was made across 1556 majority, 327 Black minority, and 136 Asian minority examinees. Although the hypothesis of a unidimensional factor pattern was retained for each group, hypotheses of equal factor weights…

This paper provides school personnel with a practical outline for selecting an appropriate standardized achievement battery by describing the test selection procedures developed by a large metropolitan school system. The system needed a new achievement test battery which would reflect recent curriculum changes and provide for grade level testing.…

In 1983, four screening tests for assigning students to the appropriate levels of the Stanford Achievement Test, Seventh Edition, were developed with a national sample of hearing impaired students. While students are normally assigned to one of six test level booklets according to grade, this is inappropriate for certain students. This paper…

Intended for students taking the Grade 12 Examination in English 30 in Alberta, Canada, this reading test (to be administered along with the questions booklet) contains 10 short reading selections taken from fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, including the following: an excerpt from "Where Did You Go?""Out." (Robert Paul…