There are many available screeners for reading and other education or social-emotional outcomes. This brief outlines important things to consider when choosing and using a screener.

In this rejoinder, the authors describe the aim of the original study as an effort to conduct a critical test of an important postulate underlying the Cross-Battery Assessment PSW approach (XBA PSW; Kranzler, Floyd, Benson, Zaboski, & Thibodaux, this issue). The authors used classification agreement analysis to examine the concordance between…

Early identification of social-emotional behavioral problems in infants and preschoolers is critical. Nine parent-report and caregiver/teacher-report instruments measuring preschool social-emotional behavioral problems and strengths are reviewed. Advantages to the use of parent-report and caregiver/teacher-report instruments are that they are easy…

Nonparametric and robust statistics (those using trimmed means and Winsorized variances) were compared for their ability to detect treatment effects in the two-sample case. The use of two specialized tests, designed to be sensitive to treatment effects when data distributions are skewed to the right, is not supported by the analyses. (SLD)

Few issues have provoked as much controversy as the methods for detecting item and test bias. A recent illustration of the controversy surrounding this issue could be seen in the emotional reactions to the publication of "The Bell Curve." This paper reviews methods of evaluating both item and test bias. Small heuristic data sets are…

Surveyed school psychologists regarding identification of mentally retarded students. The Wechsler scales were the most frequently used tests for deriving intelligence quotient scores, which together with adaptive behavior scale scores were rated as most influential in identification-placement decisions. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales were…

Whether performance patterns on four variables from the California Verbal Learning Test could differentiate patients with moderate or severe brain injuries from those with mild injuries giving incomplete effort was studied with 46 patients, half of whom were in litigation. The test appeared to be useful as part of an evaluation of brain injury.…

This guide helps parents understand how schools assess their child's English language ability and suggests ways for them to help schools place their children in the most useful language program. All districts must decide which students to test, and then how to test them. Some schools attempt to find out the English skills of all students, and…

A two-dimensional patient management problem test was designed to measure third-year optometry students' clinical competency at Pacific University (Oregon). Results suggest this evaluation method is valid and may be useful in identifying students needing to improve their clinical thinking skills. Some issues in test administration and scoring…

Examines problems inherent in the overuse of testing as a way to identify giftedness, especially with respect to assessing the culturally diverse. Use of portfolios is suggested as an alternative procedure that can provide a more equitable and culturally fair assessment of the culturally and linguistically diverse child. (SLD)

This guide helps parents understand how schools assess their child's English language ability and suggests ways for them to help schools place their children in the most useful language program. All districts must decide which students to test, and then how to test them. Some schools attempt to find out the English skills of all students, and…

This directory is intended to provide technical assistance for Nevada school districts and other evaluators of preschool children in selecting appropriate instruments to use in the multidisciplinary process for special education eligibility. It is not a list of approved tests, and tests not listed in this directory may be appropriate for…

Options are presented for accountability in Chapter 1 schools and identification of low-performing schools. Two options are suggested that could move Chapter 1 toward more local control or toward more national control. In either case, the shortcomings of using normal curve equivalent gains on standardized tests should be recognized. (SLD)

This classroom assessment tool offers teachers a method to identify academic needs across the curriculum for migrant, language-different, and mobile students. The primary strategy of this assessment system is to identify the knowledge and skill levels of these students in core curriculum areas. The snapshot assessment is a low-stakes, informal…

The classroom assessment tool described in this manual offers teachers a method to identify academic needs across the curriculum for migrant, language minority, and mobile students. The primary strategy of this assessment system is to identify the knowledge and skill levels of these students in core curriculum areas. The tests, for grades 1…