Preliminary research testing the reliability and the validity of the "Thinking About My School" (TAMS) instrument is reported, and extensive data and analyses are included for the benefit of those who wish to do further evaluative work. Instructions for scoring and appropriate conditions for administering TAMS to students with low…

Principles and concepts of measurement and evaluation are organized to aid teachers and students of education in developing an understanding of the issues in educational evaluation and some command of its procedures. Chapter headings are: Issues in Educational Evaluation; Foundations of Evaluation; The Treatment of Empirical Data; Instructional…

The design of a school anxiety questionnaire is described. The model predicts a maximal relationship between anxiety and performance when type of anxiety potential, type of stress, and type of behavior are in parallel. The test, developed with intermediate school children, is a five scale 105 item multiple choice questionnaire with responses on a…

In connection with the new SAT that was introduced in March 2005, research has been under way to investigate the feasibility of providing examinees with score reports that contain feedback on skills measured by the critical reading, mathematics, and writing sections of the test. The main purpose of this study was to estimate the reliability of the…

By the spring of 2000, forty states had begun using student test scores to rate school performance. Twenty states have gone a step further and are attaching explicit monetary rewards or sanctions to a school's test performance. In this paper, the authors focus on accountability programs in which states measure the effectiveness of individual…

This book is designed to introduce education students to the essentials of measurement and evaluation. It focuses on the topics essential to effective classroom teaching and treats these topics in a way that emphasizes the human context that surrounds and guides their use. The book is organized into three main sections. The first is understanding…

A study investigated the validity of an English listening skills test by comparing the results of native American and British English speakers with those of Dutch students of English as a second language. A hypothesis suggested that two-thirds of the items would test listening skills and the remaining third would test other knowledge. Test results…

In the late 1970s, the Department of Defense requested that the reference population for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) be changed and updated to reflect the current youth population. Analyses of new data collected in 1980 indicated that speeded subtest scores of the new sample were atypically low and that the sample might…

Validation of an Air Force vocational interest inventory in the enlisted force was conducted to develop improved job placement techniques with a view toward practical application of results during initial counseling and job placement of enlisted personnel. The Vocational Interest-Career Examination (VOICE) was administered to 18,000 recruits…

To assess the stability of the Scholastic Aptitude Test verbal score scale SAT--V, 1963 and 1973 forms of the SAT--V were administered in counterbalanced order to spaced samples of the same group. The 1973 scores were placed on the reporting scale used for the 1963 form. The experimentally derived scores on the 1963 scale were compared with their…

COUNSELORS OFTEN ADMINISTER TESTS OF QUESTIONABLE VALIDITY. IN RELIABILITY STUDIES, EVERY PRECAUTION IS TAKEN TO STABILIZE THE STIMULUS SITUATION. IN ASSESSING VALIDITY, CONCERN CENTERS ON BEHAVIOR UNDER DIFFERENT STIMULUS CONDITIONS. CRONBACH'S THEORETICAL LIMIT FOR A VALIDITY COEFFICIENT OF A TEST IS THE SQUARE ROOT OF THE RELIABILITY…

A student's choice of an answer to a test question is a coarse measure of his knowledge about the subject matter of the question. Much finer measurement might be achieved if the student were asked to estimate, for each possible answer, the probability that it is the correct one. Such a procedure could yield two classes of benefits: (a) students…

The Cultural Attitude Scales represent a modular approach to the measurement of cultural attitudes and knowledge with respect to the Puerto Rican, Anglo-American, and Black-American cultures. They are applicable to programs which propose to enhance ethnic identity or cross-cultural understanding among any one or more of these three ethnic groups.…

The stability and change of verbal, non-verbal, and total IQ scores from group tests were investigated for students tested at Grades 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, and 11. Conclusions are discussed in detail, and the following recommendations are made: (1) Group intelligence tests should not be routinely administered in Grades 1 and 2 unless the users and…

This paper examines the development and evaluation of criterion-referenced measures, and elaborates on the distinction between them and norm-referenced measures. The concept of sensitivity is introduced as an appropriate method for evaluating such measures, and a sensitivity index is proposed. The traditional model for the response of a subject to…