A study was designed to develop a number of tests of oral proficiency and to compare those tests with the existing, highly subjective testing method used at the end of secondary school in Israel. The study used four experimental tests: the oral interview, role playing, reporting task, and group discussion. The experimental tests were analyzed for…

Generalizability theory was used to analyze the dependability of elementary school student ratings of attitudes toward school subjects. The rating scales under investigation have been developed to measure the attitudes of students toward four school subjects at both the primary and intermediate levels. Two generalizability coefficients, differing…

Eight different methods are reviewed for determining whether two or more tests are equivalent measures. These methods vary in restrictiveness from the Wilks-Votaw test of compound symmetry (which requires that all means, variances, and covariances are equal), to Joreskog's theory of congeneric tests (which requires only that the tests are measures…

This study empirically investigated the validity and utility of the stratified adaptive computerized testing model (stradaptive]developed by Weiss (1973). The model presents a tailored testing strategy based on Binet IQ measurement theory and Lord's (1972) modern test theory. Nationally normed School and College Ability Test Verbal analogy items…

Validity and reliability studies of the Bullen Reading Attitude Measure (BRAM) were conducted on 291 white children in twelve classes in two schools, grades one through six, in Fall River, Massachusetts. The instrument's validity was obtained by measuring the correspondence between respondents' answers given on the attitude subtests and their…

A 15-stage pyramidal test and a 40-item two-stage test were constructed and administered by computer to 111 college undergraduates. The two-stage test was found to utilize a smaller proportion of its potential score range than the pyramidal test. Score distributions for both tests were positively skewed but not significantly different from the…

Results of the Nowicki Locus of Control Scale indicated that the instrument did not differentiate between mildly handicapped Australian children with cerebral palsy (N=85) integrated into regular schools and their nondisabled peers (N=1391) nor was it a significant correlate of academic or social performance for the target group. (Author/CB)

Presents major stages in design and development of criterion referenced tests (CRT) with emphasis on differences between CRT construction and norm-referenced test construction. Discussion covers test interpretation; test theory; preparation for test construction (hierarchical analysis, item type selection, and choosing number of items); test…

Previous research on differences in the reliability, validity, and difficulty of essay tests given under different timing conditions has indicated that giving examinees more time to complete an essay may raise their scores to a certain extent, but does not change the meaning of those scores, or the rank ordering of students. There is no evidence…

Scores from elementary school children and adult basic education students on the Adult Informal Reading Test were used to form distribution profiles for a number of tested variables. The profile notion was concluded to be a useful means for displaying the performance trends of published informal reading inventories. (FL)

Relationships between mothers' ratings and teacher nominations for aggressive and withdrawn behavior were examined in a sample of 40 Cuban American male secondary school students. Results were consistent with the extensive concurrent and construct validity of the Behavior Problem Checklist. (CM)

Classification studies are important for practitioners who need to identify individuals for specialized treatment or intervention. When interventions are irreversible or misclassifications are costly, information about the proficiency of different classification procedures becomes invaluable. This study furnishes information about the relative…

A new measure of reading comprehension, the Diagnostic Assessment of Reading Comprehension (DARC), designed to reflect central comprehension processes while minimizing decoding and language demands, was pilot tested. We conducted three pilot studies to assess the DARC's feasibility, reliability, comparability across Spanish and English,…

Performance based assessment refers to tasks that require students to construct responses or take actions to demonstrate specific knowledge or skills. Performance assessment tasks appear in a variety of formats, but they focus on higher order skills and are nonroutine, and sometimes loosely structured, in nature. A number of concerns have been…

The reliability of four branching algorithms commonly used in computer adaptive testing (CAT) was examined. These algorithms were: (1) maximum likelihood (MLE); (2) Bayesian; (3) modal Bayesian; and (4) crossover. Sixty-eight undergraduate college students were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions using the HyperCard-based CAT program,…