The Nairn report, The Reign of ETS, has charged that the major college admissions tests administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS) have undue influence on admissions to higher education, and that the tests have little value in predicting future academic performance. Nairn's claims that the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is a poor predictor…

The use of multidomain instruments for screening or diagnostic purposes with handicapped infants and preschoolers is reviewed. Purposes of assessment and criteria for instrument utility are presented. Five multidomain screening tools and three multidomain diagnostic instruments are reviewed with respect to their validity, reliability, and utility.…

Twenty-two handicapped and 10 nonhandicapped young children were administered the Evaluation and Programing System Level 1 (EPS-1), a measure designed to provide information to develop educational programs and assess program effectiveness. The article notes reliability, validity, and utility data. (Author/CL)

Reviews the behaviors sampled, test administration, scoring, norms, reliability, and validity of the Basic Achievement Skills Individual Screener (BASIS), an individually administered test that measures skill development in reading, mathematics, spelling, and writing. (BL)

A comparison of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences Examination (BPSE) results with student performance evaluations in core clerkships, institutional and community externships, didactic and clinical courses, and related basic science coursework revealed the BPSE does not predict student performance during clinical instruction. (MSE)

The "CSE Program Evaluation Kit" is a series of nine books intended to assist people conducting program evaluations. This volume, the seventh in the kit, provides an overview of a variety of approaches to measuring performance outcomes. It presents considerations in deciding what to measure and in selecting or developing instruments best suited to…

Reasonable and practical solutions to two major problems confronting the developer of any test of educational achievement (what to measure and how to measure it) are proposed, defended, and defined. (Author/PN)

A structure for describing different approaches to testing is generated by identifying five dimensions along which tests differ: test uses, item generation, item revision, assessment of precision, and validation. These dimensions are used to profile tests of reading comprehension. Only norm-referenced achievement tests had an inference system…

Compares direct and indirect writing assessment strategies and contrasts them in terms of the relationship each has to specific classroom decision-making situations, the components of writing assessed, practical testing matters, characteristics of test exercises, test scoring procedures, and procedures for determining test quality. (HOD)

Issues related to the two-stage college entrance examinations used in Turkey are explored. Focus is on the first stage, the selection phase of the examination, rather than on the second stage, the placement phase. Further study is needed of the dimensionality of the test and sources of item bias. (SLD)

A preschool screening battery was presented to a sample of 198 children with and without mild learning problems. Cross-sample test validation was demonstrated when 81% of both groups were correctly classified. Interrater reliability of 80% or greater on all but one of the tasks was demonstrated. (Contains references.) (Author/PB)

Examined whether Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and the Slosson Intelligence Test could be used interchangeably for identifying gifted students or if the Slosson should be used as a screening instrument in the process of screening and identification in students (N=38) identified as potentially gifted. Results indicated tests…

Examined internal consistency, construct validity, and content validity of the Ethical Judgment Scale using 61 counseling graduate students. Findings indicated need for a revision of the instrument. (Author/ABL)

The relationship among the nine clinical syndrome scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) and clinical scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) was studied with 108 psychiatric inpatients. Results indicate convergent validity of only the MCMI-II Axis I scales. (SLD)

Suggests that assessment must be built into the curriculum and focused upon the kinds of skills students need. Considers much educational testing in writing to be reductionist, unrealistic, and detrimental to learning. Critiques writing assessment's trust and reliance on a single or small sample of student work collected and scored outside of a…