Assessments represent an important component of undergraduate courses because they affect how students interact with course content and gauge student achievement of course objectives. To make decisions on assessment design, instructors must understand the affordances and limitations of available question formats. Here, we use a crossover…

The personalbiserial index is a correlation which measures the relationship between the difficulty of the items in a test for the person, as evidenced by this passes and failures, and the difficulty of the items as evidenced by group-determined item difficulties. Reliability and predictive validity are studiesstudied. (Author/RF)

This is one of a series of brief and non-technical mini-reports of the Evaluation System of the District of Columbia Public Schools. This report deals with the prediction of gain in Prescriptive Mathematics Test (PMT) scores. Twenty-two variables were involved in the analyses reported in the mini-report. The data were analyzed for all grade…

Results in this study suggest that it is possible to use performance on a moderator or predictability scale to select a subgroup for whom correspondence between two predictors and the criterion is much greater than that of a subgroup whose scores on the moderator indicate a lesser degree of correspondence. (Author/ES)

A discussion of an efficient assignment plan for the domain-referenced testing program to govern how examinees encounter the items. (Author)

In a training situation, the standard procedures for predicting performance entail long delays between the request for a predictive instrument and its delivery. Methods were developed for constructing psychological prediction instruments at the time of the request, rather than waiting for the maturation of the criterion data. The two synthetic…

The purpose of this research was to determine whether sex, teacher grades, standardized achievement test scores, intelligence test scores, and teacher ratings of children's classroom social behavior are long-range (eight years) predictors of academic achievement. Significant and high Rs were found for all criteria (teacher grades and standardized…

This study explored the relationship between classification achievements and mathematics scores. A series of 16 items which included many of the traditional tasks used in Piagetian examinations of intellectual function, were used in group presentations. Ten of these tasks required concrete operations including class inclusion, additive…

This study investigated the relation between the entering characteristics of the 1,210 students who entered the 7 residential teachers' colleges in Jamaica in September 1976 and their subsequent performance in college. There were 41 predictor variables (encompassing biographical data, previous education and work experience, and general and…

Research indicates the necessity for predictive criteria other than grades to aid the community college student in making decisions concerning career, and goals. Three successive studies were conducted which demonstrate that unless there is a close correspondence between predictors and criteria, the available tests are able to predict only graded…

Perinatal variables were used to predict 7-year outcome for 538 children, 32% Negro and 68% white. Mother's age, birthplace, education, occupation, marital status, neuropsychiatric status, family income, number supported, birth weight, one- and five-minute Apgar scores were regressed on 7-year Verbal, Performance and Full Scale IQ, Bender, Wide…

This final report summarizes past research and suggests new approaches to the problem of estimating long-term individual constants using path analysis. The general objective of the research was to detect and measure the likelihood that one variable, x, measured at time, t, has a causal influence on another variable, y, measured at a subsequent…

To evaluate the usefulness of standardized achievement tests in assessing pre-university academic achievement and aptitude, the Council of Ontario Universities administered tests to incoming freshmen at four Ontario universities, and also examined their high school and subsequent university performance. The tests were designed to measure…

Reviews a study of 117 students at the University of Saskatchewan which examined the relationship between high school computer experience and university achievement in introductory computer science. The pretests used are described, findings are analyzed, and student withdrawal patterns are discussed. (Author/LRW)