Responds to five major articles by Duckworth, Goldman, Healy, Sampson, and Goodyear on issues pertaining to testing and assessment in counseling psychology. Proposes a cooperative research program to extend the conclusions from Goodyear's review, and to test the hypotheses behind the recommendations of Duckworth, Goldman, Healy, and Sampson.…

College student interpretation of the messages conveyed by the formal examination process are discussed. It is proposed that while students will most often interpret the spaces, props, equipment, and people involved in examinations as they were intended, sometimes the message is misinterpreted or challenged, making it dysfunctional. (MSE)

This article discusses the development of the Kansas Adapted/Special Physical Education Manual, including the rationale for, and adaptation of, the health-related physical fitness test items selected. The manual was developed to help meet the needs of children with various disabilities and of professionals who administer fitness tests to them.…

Some basic assessment/evaluation issues which must be considered when beginning any health/fitness program are identified, and assessment's role in fitness program development is discussed. A description is included of the development of a total wellness program designed to meet criteria for law enforcement certification of the Greensboro (NC)…

Investigated the nature of second-language proficiency with respect to its divisibility and components. The correlated-traits and second-order hypotheses were evaluated using 354 students learning English-as-a-Second-Language, a wide range of language proficiency measures, and comfirmatory data-analytic techniques. (36 references) (Author/OD)

Determines the frequency of presumptive iron deficiency and lead toxicity in 198 Utah migrant children, aged 9-72 months. There were no confirmed cases of lead toxicity. Thirteen percent of all children tested, and 30 percent of those aged 9-23 months, were iron deficient. Hematocrit determination is an insensitive screen for iron deficiency.…

The misconceptions related to the concepts of force and acceleration among college students are explored. Misconceptions are identified and their occurrence among a large percentage of students are observed. Provided are some implications for physics teaching and an eight-item test. (Author/YP)

Relates early attempts to use experimental methods, including testing, for identifying gifted students in German schools before 1930. Suggests that these attempts failed due to insufficient training, the passivity of the majority of teachers, lack of support within the administration, and the conservative interests of both teachers and parents.…

In conjunction with testing mandates, some states have developed new measures intended to reflect changes in thinking about reading. Discusses, in dialogue form, whether these new measures support educational improvement or limit them. (BJV)

An assessment model for a preservice teacher education program is described that is developmental, allows for skills enhancement, involves both arts and science education faculty review, and includes evaluation strategies other than standard pen-and-pencil tests. Assumptions underlying the model are presented and the sequence of assessments as…

Suggests that reading is a powerful source in acquiring language competence. The author argues that children do not enjoy grammar instruction, but love to hear stories and read books that they select on their own. Given the lack of clear evidence for focusing on form, it is concluded that free reading should be an option for immersion children.…

Examines linguistic encoding of curricular knowledge in classroom testing events. Argues that dominant epistemological orientation of testing events is positivist and values a discrete, bounded form of knowledge. Compares the language of testing events and earlier lesson presentations of the same curricular information, suggesting that testing…

Investigated the actionality effect in 48 French-speaking children (ages 5;0 to 7;11) by systematically varying the voice of the test sentences and the voice of the interpretive requests. The interaction between actionality, voice of sentence, and interpretive request revealed that the actionality effect depended on the type of task used to assess…

The use of taxonomies of types and levels of learning for student assessment in higher education is discussed. Five taxonomies designed for a variety of instructional areas are described. The reasons for their use are examined from four points of view: pedagogical, professional, quality assurance, and management. (MSE)

This article explores the effect of raters' background on assessments made in an occupation-specific oral language test, the Japanese Language Test for Tour Guides. Assessments of 51 test candidates made by 33 assessors were compared in order to determine what effect background has on assessments made on both linguistic and "real-world"…