Section 3 of Phase II of the Pennsylvania Plan is concerned with the adequacy of the educational quality assessment instruments. An overall discussion of reliability--content, criterion related, and construct--is presented. Reliability coefficients for the assessment inventories are provided and empirical studies of validity are described. (PR)

The stepped-up reliability coefficient does not have the same standard error as an ordinary correlation coefficient. Fisher's Z -transformation should not be applied to it. Appropriate procedures are suggested. (Author)

An investigation is conducted which presents extensive Monte Carlo results which indicate the conditions under which a procedure using the F distribution can be used to study the robustness of the confidence interval procedures for small samples. A review of the literature is presented. Procedure uses a binary data matrix. Results indicate that…

This study in parametric test theory deals with the statistics of reliability estimation when scores on two parts of a test follow a binormal distribution with equal (case 1) or unequal (case 2) expectations. In each case biased maximum-likelihood estimators of reliability are obtained and converted into unbiased estimators. Sampling distributions…

Given multiple independent measures of an underlying true factor and information on group membership, it is possible to compute a set of observed group means for each measure. Given at least three tests, these sets of means may be used to compute the reliability of the means for each test. The procedure for estimating true scores from the…

Item options of shortened forms of the Graduate Record Examination Verbal and Quantitative tests were empirically weighted by two variants of a method originally attributed to Guttman. The first method assigned to each option of an item the mean standard score on the remaining items of all subjects choosing that option. The second procedure…

Results of a comparative study of F and Q tests, in a randomized block design with one replication per cell, are presented. In addition to these two procedures, a multivariate test was also considered. The model and test statistics, data generation and parameter selection, results, summary and conclusions are presented. Ten tables contain the…

Confidence weighting (CW) tends to improve the reliability of easy tests; the Coombs-type multiple-response (MR) option tends to improve the reliability of hard tests. It was hypothesized that, on a test of moderate difficulty, offering both the CW and MR response options would improve reliability more than either alone. Twenty-four subjects took…

Differences in design between norm referenced measures (NRM) and criterion referenced measures (CRM) are reviewed, and some of the procedures proposed on designing and evaluating CRM are examined. Differences in design of NRM and CRM are said to arise from the different purposes that underlie each measure. In addition, there are differences among…

Information is presented on the validity, reliability, and normative data of the Ashlock Tests of Visual Perception-Revised, a screening test for perceptual difficulties in preschoolers. Discussed are implications for using the test for screening, diagnosis, and educational planning. (CL)

Several new programs have been added to those of the Comprehensive Occupational Data Analysis Programs (CODAP), all oriented toward analyzing and manipulating information describing work tasks, rather than jobs or persons. REXALL analyzes the inter-rater agreement among judges concerning task-factor ratings. TSKFAC adds factor weight vectors to…

This study compared a domain referenced approach with a traditional psychometric approach in the construction of a test. Results of the December, 1975 Quarterly Profile Exam (QPE) administered to 400 examinees at a university were the source of data. The 400 item QPE is a five alternative multiple choice test of information a "safe"…

Freshmen (N=202) took two batteries of aptitude tests 10 months apart. Six pairs of tests were studied. Two pairs were identical, two were parallel, and two were completely different. This design made it possible to separate three components of practice: (a) general test sophistication, (b) specific practice effect, and (c) item familiarization.…

Measures of multivariate reliability were calculated for profiles of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) subscales on three age groups. Profile dimensions based on reliability considerations were established and matched across age groups and with factor analytic dimensions. WISC was found to measure general ability and verbal and…

The concurrent validity of the Student Opinion Inventory (SOI) factor scales was determined and the reproducibility of the reliability estimates found in pilot studies of the instrument examined. Responses to the SOI from students indicated that 5 of the 6 factor scales of the SOI possessed some concurrent validity. (Author/BJG)