The article describes and critiques seven adaptive behavior instruments: Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children, American Assocation on Mental Deficiency Adaptive Behavior Scale, Balthazar Scales of Adaptive Behavior, Children's Adaptive Behavior Scale, Comprehensive Test of Adaptive Behavior, Scales of Independent Behavior, and Vineland…

This paper examines the properties of the Item Efficiency Index proposed by Neill and Jackson (1976; EJ 137 077) for minimum redundancy item analysis. (Author/BW)

In mastery testing, the raw agreement index and the kappa index may be estimated via one test administration when the test scores follow beta-binomial distributions. This paper reports formulae, tables, and a computer program which facilitate the computation of the standard errors of the estimates. (Author/CTM)

Describes a practical approach that teachers can use to check for test-item validity in test construction. The Kuder-Richardson Reliability Formula is used. Detailed instructions describe the procedure for evaluating items for difficulty and using statistical methods to determine test validity. (AM)

Standardized reading tests and associated issues involved in the teaching of reading skills are discussed, with illustrative examples of reading tests commonly used in Australia. The nature of standardized reading tests is analyzed, and the circumstances under which such tests should be used are outlined. Interpretation of scores from standardized…

Measurement problems which jeopardize the reliability and validity of competency-based writing assessments are analyzed. Methods to stabilize rating criteria and readers' application of them are necessary. Most writing assessment programs use guidelines from norm-referenced test methodology. Use of this method of criteria application based on…

The article reviews validity and reliability studies on the informal reading inventory, a diagnostic instrument to identify reading grade-level placement and strengths and weaknesses in work recognition and comprehension. Gives suggestions to improve the validity and reliability of existing inventories and to evaluate them in newly published…

Certain testing procedures will overcome some of the problems associated with the use of essay tests. Essay tests may not validly indicate achievement because the questions included in the test may not fairly represent instructional content. Reliability may be a problem because of variations in examinee response in different situations, in test…

Discusses the necessity for the use of test score data in measuring school effectiveness. Outlines the types of tests best suited to particular schools. (MD)

Discusses the relationship between subjective evaluation and objective measures of ESL writing proficiency. Objective measures used in this study accounted for 84 percent of the variance of subjective grades assigned to a sample of compositions. Author suggests that training readers can be important to the reliability and the validity of the…

The purpose of "Considering Consistency" is to provide conceptual and procedural guidance regarding reliability within the context of a local assessment system. Some of this document's contents echo "Measured Measures." For instance, methods for estimating the reliability of individual assessments, particularly as appropriate for…

The article presents a protocol for the assessment of prelinguistic intentional communication with young and/or severely language-impaired children. A set of tasks and scoring procedures are presented for the elicitation of proto-declarative and proto-imperative behaviors. Data are presented to support reliability. (Author/CL)

Explains how tables of specifications (used in estabishing content validity) and item analysis (a modificatin of item difficulty) can readily be used by the classroom teacher to design well-balanced tests. (HOD)

The "CSE Program Evaluation Kit" is a series of nine books intended to assist people conducting program evaluations. This volume, the seventh in the kit, provides an overview of a variety of approaches to measuring performance outcomes. It presents considerations in deciding what to measure and in selecting or developing instruments best suited to…

A dozen different approaches that yield 13 reliability indices for criterion-referenced tests were identified and grouped into three categories: threshold loss function, squared-error loss function, and domain score estimation. Indices were evaluated within each category. (Author/RL)