This handbook is designed to assist teachers in using the Science Item Bank to construct diagnostic tests and end-of-course achievement tests. The item bank consists of over 2,800 multiple-choice items, and teachers are encouraged to supplement this source of test items with other forms of test questions. Key answers to these questions are arrived…

The matching cloze format used in constructing the reading comprehension parts of the Micronesian Achievement Test Series (MATS) is described as a holistic approach which measures skills comparable to those needed by English as a second language students in actual reading situations. Kenneth Goodman's theory about the strategies used by good…

The Test of Enquiry Skills (TOES) is a group test designed to measure inquiry skills of junior high school students studying science, social sciences, or general studies. TOES is comprised of nine separate scales, each consisting of multiple-choice items. The following skills are measured: reference skills, including library usage, indexes and…

Two aspects of criterion referenced testing are discussed: cutting scores and test length. Several practices in determining passing scores are enumerated: (1) setting passing scores so that a predetermined percent of students pass; (2) inspecting each test item to determine how important it is that it be answered correctly; (3) determining the…

Teaching machines and programed instruction represent new methods in education, but they are based on teaching principles established before the development of media technology. Today programed learning materials based on the new technology enjoy increasing popularity for several reasons: they apply sound psychological theories; the materials can…

The validity of the multiple-choice Sequential Tests of Educational Progress (STEP) Writing Test (1957) was tested by the University of Chicago Center for the Cooperative Study of Instruction. Seven criteria developed by the center to score essay assignments were used to determine the relationship between STEP and actual writing behavior. Of the…

To investigate the type of classroom testing format most appropriate for the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) Mod 2 Reading Program, three types of teacher-administered tests for the SWRL Second-Year Communication Skills Program were developed and tried out during the 1970-71 school year. The tests were administered by the classroom teacher as…

A student's choice of an answer to a test question is a coarse measure of his knowledge about the subject matter of the question. Much finer measurement might be achieved if the student were asked to estimate, for each possible answer, the probability that it is the correct one. Such a procedure could yield two classes of benefits: (a) students…

Data available from the Fall and Spring administration of the Stanford Achievement Test: Intermediate I: Form X and the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test for all Title I pupils in the State of New Hampshire plus a random sample for the entire state, made possible the item-by-item comparison of Fall and Spring performance on the same groups of…

Materials intended for driving knowledge test development for use by operational licensing and education agencies are presented. A pool of 1,313 multiple choice test items is included, consisting of sets of specially developed and tested items covering principles of safe driving, legal regulations, and traffic control device knowledge pertinent to…

This program aimed to promote intercultural exchange among disadvantaged students (ranging in age from six to fifteen years) from Negro, Spanish-American, Winnebago (American Indian), and Caucasian families. The study attempts to analyze the nature of choices made by the four groups involved and to determine whether a five-week summer session…

The purpose of this study was to develop a test that could be used both to diagnose student writing needs and to evaluate the effects of classroom teaching on the abilities of secondary school-junior college students to write expositorily. Data analysis was organized to indicate the extent to which a carefully designed objective test could validly…

This investigation describes (a) use of an item analysis technique applied to pretest results of Tests of Basic Experiences (Moss, 1971) with children 3-5 years old enrolled in a day care center; and (b) development of a new statistical technique for evaluating change ratings between pre- and posttests. A technique of obtaining mean change ratings…

A social studies achievement test made up of items rewritten in simplified language was compared with a test containing the same items in their original form by administering the two tests to the entire 8th grade class of a suburban junior high school near Baltimore. The results showed only slightly higher scores for students taking the simplified…

English is a Right Branching Direction (RBD) language in which relative clauses appear to the right of the head noun. In contrast, Chinese primarily relies on a Left Branching Direction (LBD) in which relative clauses premodify the head. Many studies have provided evidence that the differences in principal branching directions between the two…