To address the issues associated with testing standards, sets of context-setting variables and technical matters associated with standard-setting are presented to assist groups or committees desiring to set standards in a systematic way. (Author/CM)

Starting from the premise that the assessment of second language learners' competence is a must at several points during the learning process, discusses the usefulness of laboratory testing. Argues that it allows for standardized testing, facility of test administration, easy scoring, objective measures, reliability and validity of results. (MES)

Final-year Ontario medical students (n=88) took a 4-station objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) using standardized patients and involving decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatment. Performance was scored on a checklist of behaviors unique to each case. Results indicated that because of low reliability, the OSCE is not a feasible…

Discusses how responses to multiple-choice items could be interpreted, demonstrates how responses on constructed-response items can be analyzed, and examines interactions between item characteristics and student responses. Uses information, specifically items and student responses, from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study…

An approach to testing medical students' clinical decision-making skills identifies key features (critical steps in resolution of a clinical problem) and presents a clinical case scenario followed by questions focusing on those key features. Key-feature problems provide flexibility on issues of question format, multiple responses to questions, and…

Evaluates the characteristics of Yes/No tests as a measure for receptive vocabulary size in a second language (L2). The evaluation was conducted both on theoretical grounds as well as on the basis of a large corpus of data collected with French learners of Dutch. Focuses on the internal qualities of the format in comparison with other more…

Current and emerging issues concerning the written comprehensive exam process are addressed. Both the purpose and structure of this exam are considered. Survey results are presented that describe the purposes of the exam from the perspective of doctoral coordinators. Also included is a description of how marketing departments are currently…

Computers have become a solution for many traditional problems from the kitchen to the school. It is not, therefore, uncommon to use them to solve existing problems. It is also quite frequent that different educational needs can lead to similar solutions. For instance, the Australian immigration services use a number of exams to allow the access…

A study investigated the comparability of second language (L2) listening comprehension tests by examining the effects of varying text type and assessment task on student performance. Student target language experience was an additional variable considered. Subjects were 107 beginning and 64 advanced-intermediate college-level Spanish second…

Four methods of measuring students' comprehension of French literature are discussed. The first method involves traditional comparison of themes or characters. Themes may concern war, women, or love, for example. Characters may be compared from the same or a different era or genre. The second approach uses the association of the material being…

A study examined the responses of five university students from linguistically diverse backgrounds to an unfamiliar essay examination task to be performed in English. Subjects were an East Indian educated entirely in English, a Korean-English bilingual, a Norwegian fluent in English, a black middle-class American, and an urban American. Data were…

First-, second-, and third-year students enrolled in an introductory educational psychology class at Texas A&M University in College Station were administered either a pencil-and-paper or computerized version of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory. The same or other version of the test was administered after 2 weeks. Focus is on equivalence…

This study encompassed the collection of teacher reported (N=326) testing practices and the direct assessment of teacher-made tests (N=175) for item cognitive functioning levels and construction errors. Focus was on assessing the nature and quality of teacher-made tests used in public school classrooms and describing the classroom teachers'…

Approaches to the testing of foreign language proficiency have tended to mirror prevailing philosophies in foreign language teaching, and for many years, no serious effort was made to devise oral proficiency measures. However, after World War II, structural linguistics applied to the classroom produced audiolingualism, which was a method heavily…

Two matched forms of a 50 item grammar test were developed. Twenty items designed to be humorous were included in one form. Inclusion of humorous items did not affect grammar scores on matched humorous/nonhumorous items, nor on commmon post-treatment items. Inclusion did not affect results of anxiety measures. (Author/DWH)