Issues concerning equating test scores are discussed in an introduction, four papers, and two commentaries. Equating methods research, sampling errors, linear equating, population differences, sources of equating errors, and a circular equating paradigm are considered. (SLD)

Tailored testing by Cliff's method of implied orders was simulated through the use of responses gathered during conventional administration of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. Tailoring eliminated approximately half the responses with only modest decreases in score reliability. (Author/BW)

The reliability of the four-factor model of the survey of study habits and attitudes (SSHA) was investigated. The reliabilities of the scales were marginal as measured by coefficient alpha. The hierarchical model of the SSHA was not supported by confirmatory factor analysis. (Author/BW)

Several important implications in latent trait theory, with implications for individualized or tailored testing, are pointed out. A way of using the information function in tailored testing in connection with the standard error estimation of the ability level using maximum likelihood estimation is suggested. (Author/JKS)

The answer-until-correct (AUC) procedure requires that examinees respond to a multi-choice item until they answer it correctly. Using a modified version of Horst's model for examinee behavior, this paper compares the effect of guessing on item reliability for the AUC procedure and the zero-one scoring procedure. (Author/CTM)

Four factor scores from the Bem Sex Role Inventory were derived from a factor analysis of college student responses and were compared with the original scales on a new sample of students. The factor scales were more internally consistent than those constructed by Bem. (Author/CTM)

Monte Carlo research with TAILOR, a program using implied orders as a basis for tailored testing, is reported. TAILOR typically required about half the available items to estimate, for each simulated examinee, the responses on the remainder. (Author/CTM)

Adapting curricula to the cognitive developmental level of students has been hindered by the difficulty of assessing those levels in students. The reliability and validity of a paper-and-pencil Piagetian assessment are discussed. (Author/ JKS)

A technique to measure maternal teaching strategies was developed for possible use in research and evaluation studies. Scores derived from the technique describe quality and quanitity of behaviors used by mothers to teach cognitive-perceptual tasks to their own young children. Reliability and validity data are presented. (Author/JKS)

A test-retest reliability study of the Jesness Inventory based on a group of 54 male adolescents (all probationers) and a study of recidivism among 145 probationers are reported. (CTM)

The power of the nonparametric person-fit statistic, U3, is investigated through simulations as a function of item characteristics, test characteristics, person characteristics, and the group to which examinees belong. Results suggest conditions under which relatively short tests can be used for person-fit analysis. (SLD)

Some of the methods originally used to find relationships between reliability and power associated with a single measurement are extended to difference scores. Results, based on explicit power calculations, show that augmenting the reliability of measurement by reducing error score variance can make significance tests of difference more powerful.…

Two articles discuss the controversy about the relationship between reliability and the power of significance tests in response to the discussion of Donald W. Zimmerman, Richard H. Williams, and Bruno D. Zumbo. Lloyd G. Humphreys emphasizes the differences between what statisticians can do and constraints on researchers. Zimmerman, Williams, and…

Sets of inventory scales were constructed from a common item pool, using variants of what are here called the Inductive, Deductive, and External strategies. Peer ratings for 21 traits served as criteria. Very little variation in validity was attributable to construction strategies. (Author/CTM)

Lord's, Millman's and Saupe's methods of approximating the standard error of measurement are reviewed. Through an empirical demonstration involving 200 university classroom tests, all three approximations are shown to be biased. (Author/JKS)