Although emphatically not against the concept of educational accountability, the National Education Association (NEA) feels that a redirection is needed in the implementation of such a system. Because of error, especially in testing minority and poor children, accountability programs should never use test results as the major source of data but…

This overview of measurement practices in early childhood education discusses some of the basic issues and concerns of both researchers and practitioners. Although techniques for the measurement of young children's behavior received primary attention, procedures for measuring parent and teacher behavior are also discussed. Trends in measurement…

The persistent problems in foreign language testing are considered under four headings: (1) validity, (2) scope, (3) efficiency, and (4) the problem of how tests relate to the wider context of instruction. The first consists of insuring that the measurements and assessments obtained reflect what they are intended to reflect. The problem of scope…

The results of a student evaluation of a television course on tests and measurements offered by the Extension Service, California State College, Los Angeles, California, are presented. The evaluation form, which was general in nature, was completed by 157 students who finished the course. Questions asked were: (1) How did you find out about the…

A new general approach to the problem of oblique factor transformation is identified and presented as an alternative to the common "blind" transformation techniques currently available. In addition, techniques for implementing such an approach are developed. The first section of the paper contains a brief review of the procrustes problem. The next…

A simple, rigorous, small-sample statistical technique is described for testing the hypothesis that two sets of measurements differ only because of errors of measurement and because of differing origins and units of measurement. (Author)

This paper presents a summary of the results for the Washington, D.C., public schools of the Metropolitan Readiness Test for grade 1; of the Reading and Mathematics Tests of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills for grades 3 through 9; of the Reading and Mathematics test of the California Achievement Tests for grade 2; plus a summary of the…

The purpose of this paper is to critically raise some questions as to whether measurement can provide us with a universally applicable set of criteria for making value judgments in the social sciences. Stated are assumptions that provide the framework of current standardized testing. Questions are raised as to the efficacy of current standardized…

Results of a survey test in arithmetic, administered to all 5,118, year 3 pupils of Vancouver schools during the week of May 29-June 2, 1972, are summarized and compared with those of 1969. The two parts of the test--Number Work and Problems--were given in separate sessions. Three tables present the test results data. The data show that the…

Eight graduate students were used as experimenters in this study to assess the effects of experimentally induced experimenter outcome bias with respect to selected suprasegmental phenomena (pitch, stress, and terminal intonation) emitted by the experimenters during the instruction reading phase of a behavioral experiment. Experimenters were led to…

Past practice of operationalizing the concept of fakeability of psychological tests is reviewed. The strengths and weaknesses of these indices are discussed in the light of a proposed new definition of fakeability based upon Naylor's model of measurement accuracy. (Author/JKS)

Use of the Rasch model for vertical equating of tests is discussed. Although use of the model is promising, empirical results raise questions about the adequacy of the Rasch model. Latent trait models with more parameters may be necessary. (JKS)

Discusses the costs of developing, administering, and regulating state competency tests as well as of the compensatory programs that the tests will make necessary, and then suggests five ways of reducing these costs. (IRT)

Since 1960 Denver has operated a testing program designed to assure that high school graduates possess minimum competence in four basic areas--arithmetic, spelling, grammar, and reading comprehension. (Author/IRT)

A national proficiency testing program would weaken local decision-making capacity, resegregate the schools, and further the negative effects of nonpromotion of students. Such a program would also have several negative effects on the curriculum. (Author/IRT)