The use of videotape tests is presented. Such tests enable the educator to assess student performance more directly than traditional paper and pencil tests. Test 1 was exploratory. Test 2 was designed to measure empathetic understanding. It contains 16 scenes, each about one minute long, which show five individuals in a group situation. The…

This volume, one in a series in applied linguistics, is a concise handbook of testing theory and practice in foreign language instruction. Two broad categories, "prognosis" and the "evaluation of attainment," are treated in five major chapters, including: (1) prognostic measurement, (2) achievement measurement, (3) proficiency measurement, (4)…

This book is a guide to categorizing, measuring, testing, and assessing aspects of language, and is intended for language teachers, speech therapists and other language-related practitioners, and researchers, in conjunction with other resources on research methods and statistics. The first part is a discussion of basic terminology and the varied…

The National Science Foundation is investing millions of dollars in efforts to improve math, science, and technology education through its Statewide Systemic Initiatives (SSI) program. However, states are facing difficult challenges in accurately assessing the effects of these efforts on student learning. This issue of CPRE Policy Briefs examines…

As the English article system is one of the most difficult grammatical items for Japanese learners of English to acquire (Japanese has no article system), this paper explored the accuracy order of articles in English by 141 Japanese speakers. A secondary purpose was to examine if these second language results extend Cziko's 1986 proposal that…

The design of vocabulary tests, particularly for English as a Second Language, is discussed. The discussion is intended to help language teachers with little or no knowledge of testing gain a better understanding of vocabulary testing. First, a set of principles for guiding the writing of vocabulary tests are outlined, presented in the form of…

This annotated bibliography presents the holdings (as of November 1992) of the Test Center lending library of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Many of the 76 entries are informal assessments and are intended mainly for the classroom. The journal articles, books, and chapters of books in the annotated bibliography were published…

Educational technology has been a focus of development and research in science teaching and learning. This document reviews research dealing with computer and hypermedia applications to assessment in science education. The paper reports the findings first for computer applications for assessment and then for hypermedia applications in assessment.…

This book examines issues and questions surrounding student achievement, combining research with practice to present an overview of current efforts to foster student learning in the United States at local, state, and national levels. Following the preface and introduction, which stress the importance of focusing on students, chapter 1 examines the…

In foreign language testing, as in all testing, validity is the primary criterion for test quality. However plausible the concept of validity, in practice it is not always easy to arrive at congruence between the test situation and the real-life situation the learner is expected to master. Some language educators make authenticity a major…

This paper presents a report of a 1987 symposium on the Evaluation of Foreign Language Proficiency held in Bloomington, Indiana. Although much has been accomplished in language testing, much remains to be done before the language teaching profession has at its disposal a common means of measuring proficiency in the functional use of language in…

This digest focuses on measuring literacy in the United States. Various reports and surveys offer conflicting data on the extent of illiteracy, but it is generally agreed upon that the rates are alarmingly high. Information provided in this digest highlights the problem of defining literacy and the limitations of various approaches to measuring…

Educational assessment in higher education as seen by those who have a key part in the process is considered, with reference to the British system. Ways in which the assessment of students can be categorized, and the need for every assessor to have a clear and explicit purpose are addressed, along with the principles of fairness, validity, and…

The Figure Location Test (FLT) developed by Donlon, Reilly and McKee to provide a machine-scorable test of the cognitive style called field dependence-field independence, was administered as the experimental section of the October 1976, Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Aptitude Test at about one third of the centers in the United States. Initial…

Offers a variety of testing techniques to be used in general education science courses. Stresses higher order questioning and divides methods according to suitability for class sizes. (CP)