There is strong theoretical support for oral reading fluency (ORF) as an essential building block of reading proficiency. The current and standard ORF assessment procedure requires that students read aloud a grade-level passage (˜ 250 words) in a one-to-one administration, with the number of words read correctly in 60 seconds constituting their…

We use a natural experiment to show that the presence of an external examiner has both a direct and an indirect negative effect on the performance of monitored classes in standardized educational tests. The direct effect is the difference in the test performance between classes of the same school with and without external examiners. The indirect…

Recent studies indicate that examiners make a number of intentional and unintentional errors when administering reading assessments to students. Because these errors introduce construct-irrelevant variance in scores, the fidelity of test administrations could influence the results of evaluation studies. To determine how assessment fidelity is…

Examines the use of clinical interviews as a complement to more typical achievement tests. The research focused on the learning outcomes resulting from second grade students' viewing of television program on magnets. Results indicated that clinical interviews provided evidence of effective instruction when achievement tests did not. (ML)

It was concluded that even with prior practice sessions, above average pupils in grades one and two are unable to utilize separate answer sheets in an effective manner. (AG)

This paper presents an overview of the state of the art in attitude assessment of young children toward school and school-related activities. The focus is on preschool children, aged four, through second grade children. Various problems of attitude assessment are presented and techniques of attitude measurement such as (1) teacher ratings, (2)…

Use of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests (WRMT), individually administered wide ranging reading tests, was explored, using Title I evaluation Models A1 and A2. Attention was focused on: (1) relationship of the Title I curriculum to the WRMT and the SRA Reading Test; (2) comparative reading achievement gains on both tests, using Model A1; and (3)…

The testing of bilingual students poses particular problems for analyses of performance, item bias, and test adequacy. A test administered in two languages to children selected for their language facility provides a special arena for the study of these problems. The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) was selected because the test content…

Presents guidelines for developing close translations of tests into other languages, presenting an example that applies these guidelines to translation into Spanish of the Cognitive- Based Literacy Assessment-Revised (CBLA-R) for first and second graders. A case is made that translations which ignore the language systems and culture of limited…

A study was conducted to determine if there were significant differences in vision between beginning readers who learn to read easily and those who learn with difficulty (dyslexics). In addition, the study examined the mean of the high achievers (rather than expert opinion) to discover the degree to which visual efficiency was normally needed for…

This study examined differences in predicting achievement by sex on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) from the verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal scores on the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT). The sample (n=10,000) consisted of all students in Grades 2, 5, and 8 who completed both tests in fall 1984. Examinations of means and standard…

Gumpgookies, an objective-projective test of school achievement motivation for children 3 1/2 to 8 year, was reduced from 100 to 75 items following extensive factor analyses. This revised test attempted to dissipate the effects of response sets of the subjects and was prepared in three versions--an individual form, a group form for non-readers,…

Two hypotheses were tested in this study: that second grade students who receive instruction and practice in nonsubstantive test taking techniques will achieve higher standardized reading test scores than second grade students who do not receive this instruction and practice both immediately following treatment and four months after treatment. The…

The development of the Student Selection Battery for the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study is described. This battery, which measures reading and mathematics achievement in second and fifth grade students, will be used to select target students for the study of teaching effectiveness. Methodological considerations included: the limited amount of…