Educators in Europe are complaining about mishandled changes in a key English-language test and are demanding that the Educational Testing Service (ETS), which runs the examination, delay plans to introduce its new online format in March 2006 in more than 100 countries. Critics of the planned change in the Test of English as a foreign Language…

The Idaho Comprehensive Literacy Assessment (ICLA) is a faculty-developed, state-wide, high-stakes assessment of pre-service teachers' knowledge and application of research based literacy practices. The literacy faculty control all aspects of the test, including construction, refinement, administration, scoring and reporting. The test development…

The Behrens-Fisher problem arises when one seeks to make inferences about the means of two normal populations without assuming the variances are equal. This paper presents a review of fundamental concepts and applications used to address the Behrens-Fisher problem under fiducial, Bayesian, and frequentist approaches. Methods of approximations to…

Validity is a critically important issue with far-reaching implications for testing. The history of conceptualizations of validity over the past 50 years is reviewed, and 3 important areas of controversy are examined. First, the question of whether the three traditionally recognized types of validity should be integrated as a unitary entity of…

This paper explains how analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and related statistical corrections work and discusses difficulties with the use of these corrections under certain circumstances. ANCOVA is essentially a regression of a covariate variable on the dependent variable from the entire sample ignoring group membership, at least, if ANCOVA…

In the technique developed by K. G. Joreskog to solve the problem for oblique rotation to a specified simple structure, the basic concept is that the simple structure solution itself is determined only by the zero coefficients of the reference-structure matrix and not by the coefficients of non-zero magnitude. Following this, prior information…

The chronicle provides information on programs and offers articles of interest to gifted students and educators. Among entries are the following: "The Testing Maze" (about the various tests students are faced with); "Using Community and Family Resources for the Gifted Student" by E. Kearney; "Study Skills: Basic Strategies for Learning" by W.…

Data were reanalyzed from previous studies to attain ratio scores between right/wrong answers on test one or test two. Feedback was either immediate or delayed between test one and test two. The interference-perseveration theory was found superior to the verbal rehearsal theory in explaining the delayed retention effect. (Author/BJG)

Proposes three different multiple range tests based upon the Newman-Keuls philosophy with respect to significance levels. The three tests utilize the Fmax statistic, Cochran's statistic and a normalizing log transformation of the sample variances respectively. (Author/RC)

A sequential testing model is proposed which employs discriminant functions to classify examinees into groups which could correspond to instructional treatments. A termination rule based on the computed posterior probability of group membership is suggested. (Author)

This paper describes three investigations conducted by the University of London School Examinations Department into the possible use of stimulus questions, containing original historical material such as cartoons, maps, photographs and statistics, in the 'O' level history examination. (Author)

A Monte Carlo technique was employed in order to compare the relative power and robustness of the Bartlett, Cochran, Hartley, and Levene tests for homogeniety of variance. (Editor)

The use of a university exam to test the effects of ESP produced essentially overlapping distributions of performances by the experimental and control groups. (Author/KM)

Analyses of repeated measures to evaluate the role of active and passive instructions showed decreased test anxiety somewhat more with the use of active instructions. (Author/KM)