Competency in the three skills areas of reading, writing, and mathematics is a requirement for high school graduation in the state of New York. The writing competency requirement consists of two tests: the Preliminary Competency Test in Writing, given to students in the eighth or ninth grade, and the Regents Competency Test in Writing, given to…

Minimum competency testing programs, which assess the basic skills deemed necessary for assimilation into society, have been mandated in several states. Some competency assessment devices, however, do not take handicapping conditions into account. Furthermore, disageement over what constitutes minimum competency prevails among the various state…

Some uses of achievement tests to provide information for school administrators are described. Three systematic programs are described briefly: (1) a computer-based approach to management and planning designed to answer what is to be learned, how is it to be learned, and has it been learned; (2) a problem solving design for accountability that…

This is the third of three volumes designed to cover the problems and issues of developing and managing a formal assessment program. They also offer guidelines and illustrations of several of the more special aspects of assessment programs, such as administering tests or documenting their results. This volume contains summaries of technical…

This operations manual for field staff (site monitors, site coordinators, and testers) involved in the observation and testing of children is part of a series of documents on the evaluation of Project Developmental Continuity (PDC), a Head Start demonstration program aimed at providing educational and developmental continuity between children's…

In February, 1976, the Education Policy Research Institute sponsored this conference on the use of tests in educational policy formation; these six papers were presented at that conference. In the first paper, Jenne K. Britell discusses four points that have historically characterized debates about testing; psychometric and technical issues;…

This paper describes two procedures for making binary classification decisions using tailored testing: the sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) and a Bayesian decision procedure. The first procedure described, the SPRT, was developed by Wald for quality control work. It has not been widely applied for testing applications because the…

TO ENCOURAGE POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDENTS TO READ PROPERLY AND CONTINUOUSLY, THE AUTHOR GIVES FREQUENT SHORT QUIZZES BASED ON THE ASSIGNED READINGS. FOR EASE IN ADMINISTRATION AND SCORING, HE USES MARK-SENSE CARDS, ON WHICH THE STUDENT MARKS DESIGNATED AREAS TO INDICATE HIS NUMBER AND HIS CHOICE OF ANSWERS. TO EMPHASIZE THE VALUE OF CONTINUED HIGH…

MOST OF THE CRITICISMS OF TRANSLATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOL LANGUAGE COURSES FOCUS ON THE SUPPOSEDLY DIFFICULT PROBLEMS OF SELECTING, USING, AND GRADING TRANSLATION TESTS AS OPPOSED TO THE OBJECTIVE TESTS GENERALLY USED BY ADVOCATES OF AUDIOLINGUALISM. BUT MOST OF THESE CRITICISMS FAIL TO RECOGNIZE THAT THE PROCESS OF LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE…

THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY WAS TO TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT, WHEN STIMULI PRESENTED IN TESTS TO RESPONDENTS INCREASE IN THEIR APPROXIMATION TO THE COMPLEXITY OF RELATED LIFE BEHAVIOR, EFFICIENCY OF TESTS IN PREDICTING LIFE BEHAVIOR WILL ALSO INCREASE. THE STUDY WAS CARRIED OUT IN THE CONTEXT OF TEACHER EDUCATION, WITH ACTUAL CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR OF…

The paper examines seven pressing issues in the educational assessment of children with learning and behavior disorders. Research and court cases are cited in the discussion of the following issues (sample subtopics in parentheses): focus of assessment (for clarification, identification, and classification purposes); types of abilities evaluated…

Test anxiety is a common problem manifested by many college students. The Testing and Psychological Services Center at Northern Kentucky University sees a number of such students each semester. The possible causes of test anxiety are frequently the illogical or unrealistic demands that some students place on themselves. The methods of treatment…

Twenty-six papers concerning Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I program evaluation--presented at the 1978 American Educational Research Association/National Council on Measurement in Education meeting--are summarized. Speakers from the federal government are: C.T. Cross (see ED 156 695); R.L. Fishbein; and D. Ozenne. State department…

TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF A 6-WEEK HEAD START PROGRAM ON THE SCHOOL READINESS OF 81 CULTURALLY DEPRIVED CHILDREN IN EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH, LOUISIANA, COMPARISONS WERE MADE BETWEEN HEAD START AND NONCULTURALLY DEPRIVED CHILDREN. IQ SCORES AND CULTURAL-SOCIOLOGICAL-ECONOMICAL STATUS INFLUENCE UPON SCHOOL READINESS WERE STUDIED. ALL CHILDREN INVOLVED…

The Ohio Trade and Industrial Education Achievement Test battery is comprised of seven basic achievement tests: Machine Trades, Automotive Mechanics, Basic Electricity, Basic Electronics, Mechanical Drafting, Printing, and Sheet Metal. The tests were developed by subject matter committees and specialists in testing and research. The Ohio Trade and…