Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) protocols were used with at-risk Hispanic female and male adolescents were examined to determine their sensitivity to this population. The SDS was completed by 89 at-risk Hispanic students (49 females and 33 males) in grade 9 at a nontraditional school for students who have been deemed at risk for gang and…

Discusses problems related to urban education and suggests ways that classrooms may be restructured. Concludes that educators must draw on both environmental factors such as the home and the classroom social group, and academic and organizational alliances in order to effect meaningful change in urban schools. (MW)

Explores the cumulative impact of repeated standardized testing on student attitudes and motivation. By high school, a large number of students, especially low achievers, become disillusioned about tests, are less motivated to give genuine efforts, and increasingly use inappropriate test-taking strategies, undermining test validity and genuine…

This critique of the "America 2000" educational reform initiative claims that its fundamental proposals highlight "old" ideas based on a "puritanic" perfect society with little attention to equity and the multidimensional needs of such groups as African-American at-risk students. The paper discusses the impact of the…

The Language Assessment Battery was administered to third to fifth grade limited English speaking students in New York City. Special techniques addressed two common problems in testing these populations: (1) language tests suitable for limited English speakers change their psychometric characteristics over time as the students' language ability…

Summaries of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score statistics (means, standard deviations, and the number of students taking the test) are presented for students grouped according to testing years (for 1956-57 to 1975-76) and according to high school classes (from 1966-67 to 1975-76). For recent years, mean scores for geographical regions and for…

Greatly expanded programs of financial aid based on need have made it possible for large numbers of low income students to attend college. Since test scores have high correlation with family income, one might wonder whether or not the increase in low income students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test has caused the decline in mean scores, which…

The effects of test content reflecting black or white culture, on the performance of college-bound students of both races was examined. Eighty-five culture-specific items were developed for use in the English Usage and Social Studies Reading subtests of the ACT (American College Testing) Assessment Program. Items were administered as four separate…

The conference is divided into three sections: (1) constructing examinations so that they will be valid measures of important functions; (2) defining the nature of the verbal factor as used in aptitude test batteries; and (3) establishing the type of norms most useful and important for the interpretation of achievement test scores. Papers are…

Papers include: "ESP Tests: The Problem of Student Background Discipline (J. C. Alderson, A. H. Urquhart); "The Lexical Richness of L2 Written Productions and the Validity of Vocabulary Tests" (P. J. L. Arnaud); "The Construction of a Modular Thematic Task Bound English Language Achievement Test Battery for Kuwait" (M. I. Baghdady); "The Fill-In…

Public examinations in developing countries play a critical role in the selection of students for participation in the educational system. The examinations tend to be highly academic, bearing little reference to the everyday lives of students, limited to paper-and-pencil tests, and geared toward discriminating among high achieving students.…

This document is a study of standardized tests by sub-group, ranking the states according to scores divided (in turn) by gender, race and ethnicity, location of school, family income, parental education, teacher qualification and experience, limited English proficiency, special education participation rate, and per-pupil spending. The tests…

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…

Ability grouping, defined as "the practice of organizing classroom groups in a graded school to put together children of a given age and grade who have most nearly the same standing on measures or judgments of learning achievement or capability," is considered in terms of its effect upon students' academic achievement and affective development. It…

Validity data (prediction of first-year grade point average) for colleges participating in the Admissions Testing Program Validity Study Service (VSS) and based on students entering college in 1964 through 1974 are summarized for the following predictors: Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)--verbal score, SAT--mathematical score, high school record,…