The Los Angeles Unified School District has been concerned over the excess testing of elementary school pupils, particularly those who are in special programs. When the Board of Education decided to have yearly testing of pupil progress using a locally developed criterion-referenced test, the intention was to replace a previously used…

The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, Form U, is scored in two ways: number-correct and pattern. The latter makes use of the information about which particular items are answered correctly, giving more weight to the more discriminating items and making allowances for guessing. Critics have suggested that black students are penalized by pattern…

Item bias, when present in a multiple-choice test, can be detected by appropriate analyses of the persons x items scoring matrix. Five related schemes for the statistical analysis of bias were applied to a widely used, primary skills multiple-choice test which was administered in either its English- or Spanish-language version at each of the two…

An alternative method of identifying effective schools, based on the concept of effective schools as statistically atypical, was tested. This paper investigates the issue of consistency of the identification of what is termed "exceptional" schools. The following tests were administered to all first through fourth graders in 431 schools…

A test of whether metacognition is a separate factor from cognition was conducted by measuring the effects of metacognitive factors in problem solving, while attempting to hold relevant cognitive factors constant. Learning disabled subjects were less skilled in metacognition with respect to knowledge about cognition and regulation of cognition.…

The developer of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills scaling responds to Hoover's attacks on Thurstone and item response theory scales (TM 510 173). While agreeing that grade equivalent (GE) scores are presently the most appropriate developmental score for reporting elementary grade achievement tests, limitations and inconsistencies in the GE…

Extended caution indices (ECI) specify the degree of confidence that can be placed in an individual's test score by analyzing patterns of item response. Among the most promising of such indices are the standardized ECIs. Contrary to the literature, several instances were found, in a previous study, of nonnormal distributions of ECIs with samples…

Grade equivalent (GE) scores for elementary school achievement tests are defended in response to efforts to ban their use. Equal interval developmental scoring methods for the Sequential Tests of Educational Progress and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills are criticized. (BS)

How various methodological decisions may influence studies of the effect of time-on-task on achievement are examined. Subjects were students in grades 2-5 in 18 classes taught by 12 teachers in a rural Maryland school district. All students were pre-tested in February 1978 in reading, language arts, math and social studies using the Comprehensive…

The author addresses issues raised by Burket (TM 510 174) about the Iowa Test of Basic Skills scaling procedures. Further reasons for his criticism of Thurstone scale scores and item response theory scale scores for elementary school achievement tests are given. (BS)

Test anxiety scores from a 15-item internally consistent instrument were correlated with performance on an aggregate science test administered to 171 fourth- and 187 eight-grade students subdivided by sex and race. The interpretation of data possibly suggest that test anxiety is operating differentially for black and white students. (Author/PN)

School effectiveness indices (SEIs), based on regressing test performance onto earlier test performance and a socioeconomic status measure, were obtained for eight subject-grade combinations from 485 South Carolina elementary schools. The analysis involved school means based on longitudinally matched student data. Reading and mathematics…

Describes a system employed by a middle school to improve performance scores on the Comprehensive Testing of Basic Skills (CTBS), through aggressive attitude changes, to ensure fiscal and other benefits. Notes characteristics of the approach, including realistic goals, student involvement, student responsibility, community involvement, student…