Reviews Family Concept Assessment Method (FCAM), instrument designed to measure family concept, the sum of a person's values, attitudes, and feelings regarding his or her family. Discusses FCAM reliability, administration and scoring, and clinical utility. Concludes that at least two measures (family congruence and family satisfaction scores) may…

Describes Family System Test (FAST) as improvement over other figure placement techniques which offers assessment procedure that measures both cohesion and power, assesses several family levels, allows for interpretation and comparison of individual and collective perceptions, and yields more complex view of family dynamics by providing…

In the United States, when English language learners (ELLs) are tested, they are usually tested in English and their limited English proficiency is a potential cause of construct-irrelevant variance. When such irrelevancies affect test scores, inaccurate interpretations of ELLs' knowledge, skills, and abilities may occur. In this article, we…

The Child Assessment Scale (CAS), developed to address the need for a standardized child interview in identifying psychological disorders, was administered to 32 outpatients, 18 inpatients, and 37 normal controls. The CAS discriminated among the three groups in terms of degree of psychopathology, content areas, and symptom complexes. (Author)

To examine possible reasons for conflicting prevalence data on psychiatric features of Alzheimer's disease, compared results of mental status examination by physician with questionnaire completed by caregivers in eliciting 12 different psychiatric symptoms. Found agreement only on categories suggesting agitation. Formal examination showed more…

The speech intelligibility of 21 hearing-impaired adolescents was measured by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) rating scale, the Speech Intelligibility Evaluation, and the Speech Intelligibility Test for Deaf Children. The practical advantages and disadvantages of each procedure are discussed and recommendations made for their…

Describing the types and uses of tests may seem to be an easy task, but it is not as straightforward as it may first appear. Tests vary on many different characteristics, are used in many different ways, cross the typical assessment categories, and in some cases are so unique as to from a category unto themselves. This chapter explores many…

Describes Berufsbildertest, or Vocational Pictures Technique (VPT), technique constructed on theory that behaviors of choice are evoked by eight different factors of human needs or inclinations: softness, power, social conscience, show, reason, mind or spirit, matter, and orality. Explains usefulness of test in career counseling and presents…

Identifies fallacies in the logic of performance measurement (PM) and provides examples of the ways in which PM is routinely misused. Also identifies strategies for effective use of PM and shows how PM can be used for monitoring purposes, raising questions, and identifying areas requiring management attention. (SLD)

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…

The feasibility of using linear and equipercentile equating methods (W. H. Angoff, 1984) to equate forms of the Test of Written English (TWE) by using the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) as an anchor was explored. These two equating methods assume that either the TOEFL test and TWE test measure the same skills or that the examinee…

Assessment questionnaire completed by 65 special education teachers indicated the tests they used, the assessment results gathered from other sources, and tests found most useful in instructional planning. Results of only one instrument, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, were used by over 3/4 of the Ss. (Author/CL)

Assessment instruments should be selected on the basis of test design variables (such as date of development and content sequence), test construction variables (including standardization results), examinee-related variables (such as prerequisite skills and vocabulary level), examiner-related variables (including preparation and skills), and…

Measures of repetitive finger movement are used in neuropsychological evaluation of children and adults. A comparison of the Light Beam Finger and Foot Tapping Device with the Halstead-Reitan Finger Tapping Test (R. Reitan, 1979) for 33 adults shows similar psychometric properties for both and moderate to high correlations between the measures.…

The articles in this issue, written from the perspectives of academics, practitioners, and publishers, show that examining the consequences of assessment is an important, large, and difficult task. Collaborative action by assessment developers, users, and the educational measurement community is needed if progress is to be made. (SLD)