The guide is intended for teachers who must construct language tests and for other professionals who may need to construct, evaluate, or use the results of language tests. Most examples are drawn from the field of English-as-a-Second-Language instruction in the United Kingdom, but the principles and practices described may be applied to the…

A study was conducted to examine the validity of the Learning-Thinking Style Inventory (LTSI) and to investigate the learning and thinking styles of college students in relation to their major and academic performance. Generated out of the framework of personality model and information processing theory, the 49-item LTSI embraces a broad spectrum…

The concept of developmental appropriateness can be applied to the assessment of young children. Clarifying the main purpose for which children are assessed can help determine what kinds of assessments would be most appropriate. Assessment of individual children might serve one of the following purposes: (1) to determine progress on significant…

A simple way of comparing the more widely used measures of the outcomes of mental health treatment is offered through this list of measures that includes both practical information and information about psychometric considerations. Each review contains information about the format, practicality (administration time and scoring), reliability,…

In December 1991, the South Carolina Supreme Court ordered the State Board of Education to stop using the Education Entrance Examination (EEE) for licensing parents who want to teach their children at home. In ruling that the test's validation process did not meet a standard of reasonableness, the Court established a significant precedent for test…

This book is designed to help teachers, especially secondary school teachers, create and use performance assessments. The basic concept is that teachers must plan backwards from outcomes of education to shift the paradigm of curriculum-instruction-testing to a new and more fluid design. The book presents a wide variety of assessment approaches…

This paper addresses the cross-cultural development and use of the Behavior Description Index (BDI). The development of culturally-transportable scales; cross-cultural comparisons of results for 12 Spanish, 15 Hungarian, 15 Indonesian, and U.S. managers; and the transportability of competencies as constructs are considered. A competency is an…

In 1990 the scope of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was broadened by adding the Trial State Assessment (TSA), in which approximately 2,500 eighth graders in 100 schools in 40 states and U.S. territories participated in the mathematics assessment. A major step was training local test administrators to administer the TSA…

Currently available measures of self-efficacy described in educational and psychological research literature were cataloged and reviewed after a literature search. To identify and locate these measures, searches of "Psychological Abstracts" and the ERIC system were conducted using self-efficacy and related keywords. Results of the…

The question of how standardized tests can be better developed to improve educational program evaluation is probed in this paper. After the first section's brief introduction, section 2 explores the thesis that tests developed in terms of selection and inference may not serve current social functions of educational testing. To clarify this thesis,…

Designed for parents of kindergarten and elementary school children in Austin, Texas, this brochure explains the structure and function of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. A question and answer format is used to provide information on the scope and purposes of the tests, grade level differences in testing, meaning and accuracy of the scores, and…

A project to develop and validate a tape-based alternative to the interview-based speaking proficiency test is described. The objective was to produce an economically more viable test for less commonly taught languages, closely modeled on and readily interpretable in terms of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages/Interagency…

With the increasing emphasis on teacher competency testing, it is important to examine the usefulness of the currently available paper and pencil tests. At least 40 states in the United States now have, or are planning to have, teacher tests for initial certification. Some states have tests for career advancement, and 20 mandate tests for…

The admissions process at Fayetteville Technical Institute (FTI) currently relies on high school class rank, prior academic performance, and an admissions interview for placement. Faculty concern about students' writing ability prompted a review of the placement test program, which resulted in a recommendation to include a measure of grammatical…

The National Teacher Examination (NTE) validation and cut score determination procedures for use in teacher certification in Arkansas are discussed. The NTE area examinations to be validated were selected by the Arkansas Department of Education, which compared the state's certification requirements with the NTE's rationale, content, and scope…