This paper describes a recently developed test battery which measures inquiry skills relevant to social studies teaching. The test is used to assess entry-level inquiry skills and to monitor student achievement progress. Field tested among Australian junior high school students, the test was shown to be reliable and valid. (BC)

The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) is supposedly resistant to faking. This assumption was experimentally tested with 156 naive adult college and military participants by manipulating instructional set. Results indicate that participants were able to elevate or depress their scores as directed. (Author)

A new approach to measurement in education is suggested which affords some hope that the traditional view of examining can be given a better justification. (JD)

Available evidence indicates that the Teacher Perceiver Interview fails to meet minimal requirements for instrument validity. (Author/IRT)

The author defends the Teacher Perceiver Interview method against criticism offered in the immediately preceding article. (IRT)

The reliability and item homogeneity of personality scales are in part dependent on the content domain being sampled, and this characteristic reliability cannot be explained by item ambiguity or scale length. It is suggested that clarity of self concept is also a determinant. (Author/JKS)

The test-retest reliability of one single dichotomous item is discussed. Various indices are derived for summarizing the stability of a dichotomy, based on the concept of Platonic true scores. Both open-ended and multiple choice items are considered. (Author/JKS)

This research was an attempt to determine the usefullness of the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule with pre-adolescent and early adolescent students. Previously it has been used with outpatients, institutionalized adults, or with college students. The RAS is a thirty item schedule that was developed for measuring assertiveness. (Author/RK)

Systematically investigates the effects of test context on verbal analogy item difficulty, in terms of both simple percentage correct and easiness estimates from a parameter-invariant model (Rasch, 1960). (RC)

This study investigates the usefulness of the Preschool Attainment Record (PAR) as a measure of children's developmental skills. The PAR was compared to the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) as the criterion measure, and they were found to correlate .891. (Author)

Multiple-choice mathematics tests and other measures of achievement in a mathematics course for engineering students were compared. Although the results were highly correlated, there were some discrepancies. (SD)

Different components of a course assessment system are demonstrated to have a differential weighting on the overall scores unless compensated for by normalizing scores. Then multiple choice tests, essays, and practical exercises correlate well in terms of student ranking. Traditional examinations correlate less well and may be measuring other…

A three-dimensional (3-D) test, comparable to twenty-five items from the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, constructed to determine whether 3-D stimuli would facilitate responses when compared to two dimensional (2-D) stimuli, revealed no significant effects for the version of the test (2-D or 3-D) or the order of administration. (MB)

This study examined the variability of classification by the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF) as a function of grade level medians. MFF classification was highly dependent upon which sample medians were used. Analysis revealed for the majority (65 percent) of children, change in classification was due to change in the median error cutoff.…

Changing from the SVIB to the SCII increased the probability of machine-scoring errors. This study examined the accuracy and consistency of SCII profile scores for three commercial scoring agencies. Results indicated improved performance compared with previous studies and suggested that scoring errors should be minimal for the SCII. (Author)