A group of 21 adults with moderate intellectual disabilities were administered language assessment, reading, spelling, informal writing, and phonics tests. Most had difficulties with oral language, memory, and psycholinguistic or psychomotor skills. Opportunities to talk with skilled language users about written text were important to developing…

Reviews the Test of Written Language--2 (TOWL--2). Finds the test's blending of contrived and spontaneous assessment of students' writing to be a plus. Discusses drawbacks of the test. (RS)

A study involving 120 school-aged children that investigated the concurrent validity of measures of written language found that the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Written Expression subtest correlates moderately with the Written Expression subtest of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised and the Spontaneous Writing Quotient of the…

After investigating characteristics of students' writing that contributed to their passing or failing a university writing competence examination, researchers designed and implemented instruction to help college-bound 11th graders develop appropriate writing skills. Analysis of students' pre- and postintervention writing indicated that the…

Four independent samples of children were used to study the reliability and validity of the Writing Essential Skill Screener, a measure designed to screen primary grade children at risk for writing difficulties. Among findings was that the measure is comprised of two dimensions, writing and name writing, that the factor structure did not fit the…

The author has always been weary of multiple-choice tests. When she started her teaching career, she was determined to find alternatives to multiple-choice tests. She read as much as she could on alternative assessment. Her interest in developing alternative methods of assessment was further spurred by her teaching mentor, who introduced her to a…

In this article, we review methods of writing assessment, focusing specifically on a method designed for special education: curriculum-based measurement. At the elementary and middle school levels, valid and reliable indicators of performance have been identified. At the high school level, research is sparse and has not yet supported the validity…

Students in Grades 5 and 8 completed a 30-minute writing performance assessment and a writing performance assessment completed over 3 days. Assessments were evaluated on four traits (ideas, organization, conventions, and sentence fluency). A significant interaction was found at Grade 5 between length of time allotted for the assessment and…

The NTID Writing Test was developed to assess the writing ability of postsecondary deaf students entering the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and to determine their appropriate placement into developmental writing courses. While previous research (Albertini et al., 1986; Albertini et al., 1996; Bochner, Albertini, Samar, & Metz, 1992)…

The present study examined the comparability of 4 alternate forms of the Digit Symbol Substitution test and the Symbol Digit Modalities (written) test, including the original versions. Male contact-sport athletes (N=112) were assessed on 1 of the 4 forms of each test. Reasonable alternate form comparability was demonstrated through establishing…

Course designs for Basic English Writing classes vary from one course to another. The objective of this study was to investigate the semantic misinterpretation of English words found in the English compositions written by native-Chinese-speaking undergraduate students and to overcome if such a barrier occurred in the process of writing. First,…

This study compares performance on the GED (General Educational Development) Tests, U.S. edition, across three groups of examinees: (1) graduating high school seniors in the GED U.S., 2001 norm group, (2) GED Tests candidates who took one or more tests in the United States between 2002 and 2004, and (3) GED Tests candidates who passed the tests in…

The "Evaluation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress: Study Reports" describes the special studies that comprised the design of the evaluation. In the Final Report, the authors presented a practical discussion of the evaluation studies to its primary, intended audience, namely policymakers. On this accompanying CD, readers…

This paper reports the results of an analysis of the relationship between scorer behaviors and score variability. Thirty-six essay scorers were interviewed and asked to perform a think-aloud task as they scored 24 essays. Each comment made by a scorer was coded according to its content focus (i.e. appearance, assignment, mechanics, communication,…

The summary information in this report provides teachers, school administrators, students, and the general public in Alberta, Canada with an overview of results from the January 1997 administration of the English 33 Diploma Examination. The information in the report is most helpful when used in conjunction with the detailed school and jurisdiction…