This study reports on the development of a Likert scale measuring attitudes toward Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) victims (ATAV) in five phases. Participants included a total of 215 male and 268 female undergraduates at Oregon State University. The results for phase 1 yielded a scale with high part-whole correlations, corrected…

This study concentrates on the development and estimation of measurement properties of the College Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (CASES). Three university faculties in education and psychology developed a pool of routine, frequent academic behaviors of college students. The pool was examined by seven graduate teaching assistants and trimmed and…

During the 1986 administration of the Work Aspect Preference Scale (WAPS) in a study of career development from Year 8 to Year 9, some of the students in Mount Druitt, west of Sydney, Australia, had difficulty in understanding the meaning of some terms. A closer investigation was then conducted of the usefulness of the WAPS for this group of…

Reasons for administering tests fall into two categories--decision-making and promoting learning. The two bases of tests are learning objectives and the level of learning at which training is developed. Test development involves a number of steps. The best way to tie objectives to test items is through the use of a table of specifications, which…

Four papers presented at the National Council on Measurement in Education meeting are critiqued. G. R. Mandeville and H. Heidari (1988), in a study of unusually effective schools, asked if correlations among cohorts of schools differ depending on the method of analysis used. It is suggested that it would be better to ask whether schools identified…

The evaluation tools written by teachers are rarely valid or reliable. One teaching aid that can help in the creation of an effective evaluation instrument is called a test map. A test map is a systematic method to consider variables that are important in the construction of the format of a test. Five variables that are discussed in the test…

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…

The Assessment Resource Center (ARC) at Florida State University provides computer assisted testing (CAT) for approximately 4,000 students each term. Computer capabilities permit a small proctoring staff to administer tests simultaneously to large numbers of students. Programs provide immediate feedback for students and generate a variety of…

The objectives for this study were to: (1) develop a valid, reliable measure of test-wiseness with equivalent forms for use with students in the health sciences; and (2) determine the level of test-wiseness of entering medical students. The test-wiseness areas included in this study were: similar options, umbrella term, item give-away, convergence…

As data on the reliability and validity of ratings of infant temperament have accumulated, researchers have begun to ask what caregiver ratings really measure. An argument has been made that ratings of social behavior are less a reflection of enduring individual differences than a measure of rater characteristics and error variance. This study…

The Hiskey-Nebraska Test of Learning Aptitude (H-NTLA) (Hiskey, 1966) has been regarded by reviewers as one of the best instruments for assessing the learning abilities of hearing-impaired children. However, there has been a paucity of research on the validity of this test. Further, there is no established test-retest reliability, and questions…

Despite the popularity of both multiple-choice (MC) and true-false (TF) items, most investigations comparing the two formats have done so to determine the optimum number of choices to be given to students within a given time period. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the reliabilities and the validities of both formats when the items…

The purposes of this study were to examine the reliability and validity of a basal reading series mastery test, and to explore the appropriateness and usefulness of two strategies for investigating the reliability and validity of criterion-referenced tests. Subjects were 47 sixth graders, who were tested on the SRA Reading Achievement Test, the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a basal reading series mastery test. Subjects were 47 fifth graders, who were tested on the SRA Reading Achievement Test, the Ginn 720 End-of-level 11 Mastery Test (MT), and the Word Reading Test. A subgroup of 22 children was tested a second time on the MT. Traditional…

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of a basal reading series mastery test. Subjects were 25 fourth graders, who were tested once on the SRA Reading Achievement Test, twice on the Scott-Foresman End-of-Book 9 Criterion-referenced Test (CRT), and once on the Word Reading Test. Traditional psychometric correlational…