Three hundred-fifty-two standardized tests of reading comprehension and 373 standardized vocabulary measures were analyzed in terms of a number of criteria related to psychometric quality and educational ability. The criteria were based primarily on the Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests developed by the American Psychological…

The "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education are intended to provide a comprehensive basis for evaluating tests. This digest identifies key standards applicable to most test…

Monte Carlo simulation procedures were used to study the psychometric characteristics of two two-stage adaptive tests and a conventional "peaked" ability test. Results showed that scores yielded by both two-stage tests better reflected the normal distribution of underlying ability. Ability estimates yielded by one of the two stage tests…

Local norms for the three scores of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT)--reading, spelling, and arithmetic--were developed on the basis of 1,021 children in the age range of 5 through 7 and 83 more children aged 8 through 11 from a suburban school district near Seattle, Washington. In general, the local group was found to be superior to the…

The Pennsylvania Assessment of Creative Tendency (PACT) is an experimental Likert Style Attitude Inventory designed to measure the creative tendency of elementary school children. PACT has been constructed over a period of four years, and has been subjected to item and factor analyses. The reading level has been set at Grade 5.0 or lower. To…

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a Jungian-oriented self-report inventory which classifies people into dichotomous categories along four scales: extraversion-introversion, sensation-intuition, thinking-feeling, and judgment-perception. Introduced in 1942, the scoring and items have changed after several items analyses. Form F contains 51 phrase…

An investigation was conducted to determine whether the Parental Attitude and Behavior Inventory (PABI) Form III, a lengthy self-report instrument (577 items each for both parents) for assessing parents' attitudes and behavior toward their children and each other, could be shortened to a more feasible length. This terminal report summarizes the…

Testing with minority and disadvantaged populations in America has resulted in widespread abuse. Theorists have historically viewed tests as instruments for upward mobility in a system in which doors are often opened by parental wealth and status. Predictive validity of tests has not properly accounted for problems in correlational techniques…

There are both strengths and weaknesses of using standardized test scores as a criterion for admission to institutions of higher education. The relative importance of scores is dependent on the institution's degree of selectivity. In general, decision processes and admissions criteria are not well defined. Advantages of test scores include: use of…

The Preschool Rating Scale (PRS) consists of twenty Guttman scaled items which assess a preschool child's personal-social development. Experience gained over the past two years indicate that it can be used: (1) for screening; (2) for program evaluation; (3) as a guide to the teachers in identifying specific areas of development which may need…

The Board of Education of the Houston Independent School District, through the Volunteers in Public Schools, organized the Kindergarten Screening Project in 1970. The Kindergarten Screening Instrument (KSI) consists of five sub-scales: (1) the visual scale measures visual acuity at 20 feet; (2) the hearing scale measures the child's ability to…