Comparisons of students' educational performances are usually based on test and examination results. However, for such comparisons to be valid, it is suggested that evaluations must be made on some common basis since many educational and employment decisions are based on these evaluations. Standardized tests, often used when comparisons are to be…

There was some concern that Holland's Self Directed Search for Educational and Vocational Planning (SDS) was inappropriate to use with blacks since it may steer them toward more Realistic occupations not requiring a college education. The purpose of the study was to compare the pattern of vocational planning choices for black and white students…

Multicultural perspectives on assessment challenge traditional perspectives by advancing an additional source of variation in test responses that is presumed to escape test developers and test users. Increasing and convergent evidence from multiple sources indicates the following types of ethnocentric errors in test development, administration,…

This issue contains eight articles that represent information on a variety of highly specialized topics involving communicative sciences. Articles include: (1) "The Reliability of the Kay Elemetrics Multidimensional Voice Program (MDVP) for Acoustic Analysis of the Normal Voice" (Ann Marie Cimino and Christine M. Sapienza), which focuses on the…

This study examined the reliability and validity of a group-assessment interview procedure designed to evaluate the verbal, interpersonal, and leadership qualities of students applying to a teacher education program. The group assessment procedure involved a 90-minute session with eight students in which three dimensions of teacher behavior were…

Describes the development of two instruments for use with preservice and practicing teachers: Attitudes toward Computer Technologies and Self-Efficacy for Computer Technologies. Graduate and undergraduate students completed the instruments. Results provide initial instrument validation. The paper presents data on content validity and results of…

This fact sheet lists problems involved in the use of standardized tests. It is argued that standardized tests are not really fair and helpful evaluation tools because they reward the ability to answer superficial questions quickly and do not measure the ability to think or create in any field. They also assume that all test takers have been…

One potential approach to the authentic assessment of what students know and can do in science is concept mapping. A concept map is a graph consisting of nodes representing concepts and labeled lines denoting the relation between a pair of nodes (concepts). The external concept map constructed by the student is interpreted as representing…

The eight articles in this compilation provide various approaches and techniques for use by classroom teachers in the informal evaluation of student reading performance. The first article outlines the many purposes for which informal measures may be used and briefly describes the various forms such measures may take, while the second focuses on…

This instructional training package introduces practitioners to methods for developing, validating, using, and reporting criterion-referenced tests. It provides a comprehensive presentation of criterion-referenced testing technology. The package emphasizes the most recent substantive and technological advances in the field that are both important…

Florida State University instituted a mandatory system to be used in making promotion and tenure decisions, in which teaching faculty were rated by their students. Under an agreement with Michigan State University, the Student Instructional Rating System (SIRS) was adapted for use on the Florida State campus. Since the data were to be used to…

The study's purpose was to use the Adjective Check List (ACL), a self-administered personality assessment instrument, to determine whether there were response differences between a sample of Adult Basic Education (ABE) students and the general test norms. The ACL was administered to 142 students in ABE high school completion programs in Des…

This explanatory booklet describes basic statistical terms used, precautions to be considered in interpreting assessment data, assessment measures used, computer printouts containing local school data, and norm tables. Appendices contain a listing of Michigan school districts classified according to the community type they serve and definitions of…

Technical questions regarding the reliability and validity of large-scale portfolio assessment were studied which focused on: (1) whether raters can score collections of writing reliably with rubrics designed for single samples; (2) whether ratings derived from different frameworks differ in their capacities to support technically sound…

This paper discusses the results of a study that investigated the validity and reliability of the Ecology Rating Scale (ERS). The ERS is a brief, multi-dimensional level-of-functioning instrument that can be rated by parents or clinicians. The ERS is comprised of seven domains of youth functioning: family, school, emotional, legal/justice,…