Developed a computerized adaptive language proficiency test for a community college in Quebec, Canada and obtained item response theory calibrations on the items from 700 to 800 administrations. Describes projected efforts to detect instances in which "cheating low" (answering incorrectly deliberately) occurs. (SLD)

A survey of 133 teachers and related service professionals working with students with autism, found that they believed students with mild autism were far more appropriate for participation in district-wide testing. Even though respondents identified minimally necessary accommodations, they were relatively conservative in what they were willing to…

Discusses validity issues associated with three popular content-general reading college placement tests and then presents a theoretical argument to support an alternative placement procedure using content-specific testing. Proposes that content-specific tests would have improved content-related and construct-related validity. States that more…

Described is the administration and outcomes of an asynchronous, Web-based, comprehensive exam covering MSW foundation curriculum. Over a 48-hour period of test availability, 198 students completed the 4-hour-long exam composed of 100 randomly generated questions. Significant differences in student performance across college locations were found.…

The goal of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing is to improve testing practices, but their impact on practice appears spotty. Self-regulation clearly fails in some instances. The establishment of an external agency to oversee testing practices and adherence to the Standards would face substantial hurdles, and the ambiguity of…

For some districts, the current obsession with data grows out of the need to comply with No Child Left Behind and additional accountability-related mandates. For others, it dates way back before the phrase "data-driven decision making" rolled so frequently off the tongues of educators. In either case, there is no denying that an integral…

Laird studies the relationship between two computerized nursing tests and finds a relationship between the two sets of scores. (Contains 2 tables.)

Limited information on the actual and preferred career counseling and career testing activities of school counselors exists. An analysis of a statewide school counselors' survey revealed career counseling and testing preferences, priorities and predictors. Results revealed counselors preferred trait/factor approaches to career counseling,…

This study examined the effect of oral administration accommodations on test structure and student performance on the Reading test of the South Carolina High School Exit Examination (HSEE). The examination was given at Grade 10 and was untimed; hence, students were permitted as much time as they needed to answer all the questions. Three groups of…

Recent focus on student achievement and the effectiveness of schools, school boards, and teachers has lead to increased demands for accountability in education. Large scale assessments are now used in most provinces in Canada to examine the degree to which educational standards are being reached and explore issues of accountability. Alternative…

Because of criticisms leveled at statistical hypothesis testing, some researchers have argued that measures of effect size should replace the significance-testing practice. We contend that although effect-size measures have logical appeal, they are also associated with a number of limitations that may result in problematic interpretations of them…

Providing a better education for visually-impaired learners is an objective pursued by many scientists and academics. Over the last few decades, in particular, the introduction of new technologies into education has created a number of innovative tools to assist in improving educational methods. One of the key areas where such innovations can be…

Multiple comparison procedures for controlling familywise Type I error and the false discovery rate are described and compared, including the traditional Bonferroni correction, a sequential (step-up) Bonferroni procedure (Hochberg, 1988), and a sequential false discovery rate procedure proposed by Benjamini and Hochberg (1995). Motivation for…

The National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) is the largest counselor certification agency in the U.S. and is widely recognized as a national credential based upon training, experience, and performance on a written examination. NBCC has developed two examinations: the National Counselor Examination (NCE) and the National Career Counselor…

The Z-variance and Box-Scheffe tests for homogeneity of variance are both relatively simple to perform and readily utilized in complex, multi-factor designs. The Z-variance test is not robust against non-normality; the Box-Scheffe test is robust against non-normality but is not nearly as powerful as the Z-variance test. (Author/BJG)