This manual sets forth comprehension guidelines and procedures for selecting instruments to measure educational growth, achievement, and outcomes. The necessary criteria are presented in a checklist format, permitting local district personnel to evaluate the worth of testing instruments before adoption. A subset of the criteria are defined as…

A list of 11 important characteristics of interest inventories is presented. Comparisons between interest inventories are difficult to make, and those responsible for making choices between inventories must be well-informed about the entire system. Therefore, the points are discussed in the order that a system is developed--from the item pool,…

Accountability in vocational education is discussed as consisting of two subsystems, one providing data about developing new programs and the other as providing data for answering questions about the quality of existing programs. The Minnesota model for product evaluation, the latter subsystem, is discussed. It is predicated on the theory that…

The 15 components used for assessment in an introductory psychology course were examined to determine their relative value as predictors of overall performance. Multiple-choice tests were consistently found to be more effective than essay examinations, but arguments are presented for the retention of essays, with suggestions for their improvement.…

This guide was developed for State, agency, and/or facility administrators who provide education for children and youth who are neglected, delinquent, or at risk (N or D). The guide provides basic information about the ideal characteristics of a pre-post test and highlights important features to consider when requesting and evaluating information…

This publication identifies and examines existing assessment instruments in oral communication for K-12 and higher education, and abstracts and describes assessment instruments and systematically reports their availability and interest to scholars, teachers, and administrators. It also provides background research needed to develop oral…

Career education stresses the importance of increasing the individual's awareness of the world of work, expanding career horizons, and helping students make realistic choices among various adult roles. Career interest inventories are intended to broaden a student's awareness of job requirements and to bring to their attention occupations that…

The present study examined the reliability of the WISC-R subtests and IQ scales when administered to Mexican-American children. In an effort to extrapolate these findings to the individual child, this study also attempted to ascertain the standard errors of measurement for each subtest and IQ scale. (Author)

Evaluation of the final examination should be part of the course evaluation and should include student perceptions of the exam's nature and the questions' quality. The final examination experience of two groups of undergraduate and graduate students are considered. (MSE)

Informal assessment techniques are adaptable to local adult basic education needs, relatively free of anxiety-producing format, effective time utilizers, and immediately interpretable by teacher/student. Presents assessment examples: student selected materials, Verbal Picture Analysis, graded paragraphs, Cloze Procedure, sentence completion,…

Evaluated five intelligence test instruments for use with Malaysian children: Raven's Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), WISC-R, School Failure Tolerance (SFT), Scale for Rating Behavior Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS), and Parent Checklists. Found that Raven's SPM was an effective screening test, and the WISC-R the best measure to…

Instruments used to measure creativity by 418 school districts as part of their identification procedures for gifted programs were studied. Results indicated that districts often select instruments for assessing creativity without attending to the definition of the construct. Creativity is often assessed in ways that may not be valid or reliable.…

Examines the stability reliability for the Woodcock-Johnson-Revised (WJ-R) and the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement with approximately a two-week retest interval. Results indicate that across grade levels, the Broad Reading Cluster for the WJ-R remained the same. Most correlations for the clusters for mathematics and written language were…

Inspired by four recent decisions to change achievement tests used in the Austin Independent School District, the separate forms used and procedures followed have been combined into a systematic approach intended for use in future achievement test selections. A rating scale (Attachment 1) was developed to expedite a systematic comparison among…

This document is a training module designed to familiarize practicing school psychologists and school psychology students with the field of criterion-referenced measurement and recent developments within the field. The introduction gives reasons for the need for criterion-referenced testing as opposed to norm-referenced tests which include legal…