A FORTRAN-77 subroutine is presented to calculate two test statistics for assessing goodness-of-fit in categorical data. The test statistic inferences are based on the exact first three cumulants of the Pearson chi-square statistic and a recently published modification of the Pearson chi-square statistic. (Author)

This article presents arguments that the correlation measure "r" of halo is not conceptually more appropriate than the standard deviation (SD) measure. It also describes conditions under which halo effects occur and when the SD and r measures can be used. Neither measure is uniformly superior to the other. (SLD)

The importance of educational accountability and assessment literacy is recognized as a long-term challenge to the educational system. The complexities in becoming an assessment literate and provide an opportunity to the educators to display their effective learning is discussed.

In many school districts, the pressure to raise test scores has created overnight celebrity status for formative assessment. Its powers to raise student achievement have been touted, however, without attending to the research on which these claims were based. Sociocultural learning theory provides theoretical grounding for understanding how…

This survey examined the test use practices of counselors who belong to either or both of two divisions of the American Association for Counseling and Development: the American School Counselors Association, and the Association for Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development. A questionnaire covering test use patterns, test…

The paper examines use of a children's revision of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB-CR) for three aspects of neuropsychologic assessment in children: the absence or presence of learning disability (LD), patterns in dysfunction, and rehabilitation potential and strategies. A review of research covers the use of the battery in the…

Explains two microcomputer programs written in BASIC for the Apple IIe microcomputer which allow the user to evaluate the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and choose recommendations to fit the individual needs of the client being tested. (MBR)

This Critical Issue Bibliography (CRIB) Sheet focuses on assessment. Assessment has been a major trend in higher education over the last 10 years, with the nature of the literature changing significantly over the years. This annotated bibliography groups assessment resources into these categories: (1) general resources; (2) institutional…

The American Psychological Association, in the late 1940s, began work to establish a code of ethics to include and address the needs of members in scientific and applied fields. Out of the ethics work emerged a set of standards for evaluating psychological tests. Four categories, or types of validity, were identified: content, predictive,…

The premise of this book is that the primary purpose of classroom assessment is to inform teaching and improve learning, not to sort and select students or to justify a grade. The common principles of effective assessment are covered, and the strengths and limitations of a variety of effective approaches are reviewed. Vignettes illustrate…

This book is a quick reference source to guide the career professional through the essentials of using the most popular career interest tools. It summarizes important technical aspects of each inventory, and offers step-by-step guidance in the interpretation and use of the various inventories. The chapters are: (1) "Overview"; (2)…

The criterion validity of the factor index scores of the third edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) was evaluated in a sample of 88 children with traumatic head injury. Only the Perceptual Organization and Processing Speed scores demonstrated acceptable sensitivity to injury severity for evaluation use. (SLD)

The effectiveness of the Beck Anxiety and Beck Depression Inventories for Primary Care for discriminating 56 primary care patients with and without diagnosed anxiety and mood disorders. Use of these instruments to screen primary care patients before conducting extensive diagnostic evaluations with them is discussed. (SLD)

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)

The psychometric adequacy of the Social Interaction Scale and the Social Phobia Scale (both by R. P. Mattick and J. C. Clark, 1989) was studied with 165 patients with anxiety disorders and 21 people without anxiety. Results support the usefulness of the scales for screening and treatment design and evaluation. (SLD)