A teacher offers suggestions for the diagnosis of mathematical learning disabilities including differentiation of emotional problems from mathematical problems, specification of mathematical skills, and distinction between mathematical failure and procedural failure, failure resulting from the manner in which tests are administered. (DB)

Reports on a survey which indicates that classroom teachers rarely use the Informal Reading Inventory--a diagnostic and placement instrument for reading comprehension long recommended by teacher trainers. Suggests that teacher trainers focus on other more efficient means of obtaining reading diagnosis. (ARH)

The relationship between the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Classroom Edition and its predecessor, the Vineland Social Maturity Scale was examined with 54 educable and trainable mentally retarded children. The concurrent validity of the two scales was moderate. The mean scores from the newer instrument were significantly lower. (Author/CL)

Hearing-impaired students (N=508) were administered a language-arts achievement test containing 25 items drawn from a computerized item bank developed with hearing students. Results showed that the items did not form an adequate Rasch-based test. Furthermore, the difficulty order of the items differed in the hearing and hearing-impaired…

Meta-Analysis of 59 studies revealed that neither the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception nor the Frostig program for the development of visual perception was advantageous for handicapped students. (CL)

The article describes a review of educational records of 74 hearing-impaired students. Specific attention was focused on reports concerning psychological evaluations and their components and administration. It was concluded that psychological assessment was less than adequate. The need for skill remediation among school psychologists is then…

Misreadings of pencil answer marks on test answer sheets by optical scanners cause scoring errors. Twenty-six different pencils were tested for readability differences when optically scanned. Complete light and dark marks scanned perfectly for 18 pencils. Totals for all six mark types ranged from 947 to 1726 out of 1800. (BS)

Samples in research on individual and group differences may be selected based on whole scores which differ from the population mean. Children are diagnosed in clinical practice with a whole score. These procedures produce regression to the population mean which can affect accuracy and adequacy of part score interpretations. (Author/DWH)

The variability in the testing procedures of football helmets is examined in this article. Inadequacies in standards for recertifying helmets indicates the probability of unsafe helmets being used. (Author/DF)

Discusses the Miscue Reading Inventory and offers an alternative system that keeps its strengths and completeness while eliminating most of its weak points. (FL)

Addresses the issues of whether test scores are affected by the prior availability of the items on a test. Concludes that, while disclosing items significantly affects test scores, the magnitude of the disclosure effect drecreases with an increase in the size of the disclosed pool. (EKN)

The purpose of this report is to describe a process for creating unique multiple linear regression problems for each student. Three formulas were utilized to define intercorrelations between variables. (Editor)

This study investigates the variables moderating the net gains as a result of changing initial answers to determine under what circumstances a strategy of changing initial answers is likely to produce increases in total test performance. (Author)

The three-step procedure for judging social studies exercises developed for the NAEP is described for use by schools and communities in considering performance standards for their own students. (Author/KM) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Procedures (Utilization).