When items are selected during a computerized adaptive test (CAT) solely with regard to their measurement properties, it is commonly found that certain items are administered to nearly every examinee, and that a small number of the available items will account for a large proportion of the item administrations. This presents a clear security risk…

Presents a method of testing a class that is designed to reveal the level of thinking of the individual student in the context of the science instruction that he is receiving. (JR)

Guidelines are presented for the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania City-Wide Testing Program. They involve the preparation of pupils for the Administration of the tests, preparation of teachers for administering the tests, some acceptable and unacceptable practices, use and dissemination of test results, and security concerns related to the testing…

The implementation of a district-wide testing program requires careful consideration of credibility issues. These issues have been frequently overlooked or treated casually by test developers and users alike. It is well enough to study the reliability and validity issues involved when selecting instrumentation. It is also necessary to identify…

An annotated bibliography of tests for children and parents, compiled by the Technical Assistance Development System, is presented. The bibliography was developed because of the absence of generally recognized and standardized measures of performance appropriate for use in educational programs, particularly programs involving the handicapped. The…

Scores from tests in the same battery are put on scales which are the "same" in some sense, so that certain interpretations are made easier. This is often done when scores for different tests are obtained on different population segments, especially such as newer, more varied batteries of test offerings. It is felt that traditional erroneous…

The purpose of this experiment was to relate two bodies of research on anxiety: test anxiety, or anxiety proneness specific to the testing situation, and trait-state anxiety. The author hypothesized that state anxiety--anxiety not tied to any particular situation but aroused in "any" situation--should be highly related to test anxiety during a…

Computer assisted tailored testing was used in a study of 163 Civil Service examinees to assess examinee's affective response to the testing setting. Response was summarized as overwhelmingly positive. (Author/JKS)

It is the process of regular exercise that promotes fitness. Concentrating too much on the product by overuse of fitness norms and comparisons between children may mask the real issue and can result in negative experiences for the children most in need of improvement. Key related issues are also raised. (MT)

Some examples of how students read test items are presented. The results of interviews with students who have taken a multiple-choice test indicate that they do not always solve problems on the test the way we think they do. (JP)

The results of this study indicate that the computer testing procedures led to significantly higher levels of state anxiety and less favorable attitudes in comparison to the examiner testing procedures. These negative affective reactions were seen as a function of certain computer testing procedures. (Author)

In 1967 Gough and McGurk proposed a 30 item set of geometric forms and illusions for use in cross-cultural study of cognitive functioning. An Italian survey was therefore initiated to determine the applicability of the series and its validity in specifying age related cognitive levels. The results are discussed. (Author)