Analyzes the case of a Vietnamese-speaking science student who has repeatedly failed an English competency examination that analyzes essay content, rhetorical organization, and preparation for writing. Raises questions regarding the purposes, development, and evaluation of writing competency tests. (RDS)

Reports on a study in which 12 good and 12 poor fourth-grade readers read selections in their original format and with the words in random order; concludes that the results indicate that word identification errors elicited on tests in isolation do not constitute a solid basis for predicting errors in connected text. (ET)

This paper reports an investigation of inferencing in Form Five of the Reading Comprehension component of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. The first step in the investigation consisted of an analysis of the language of the test to determine how the inferencing strategies employed might serve to mask answers. This preliminary analysis suggested that…