The use of portfolios is a rather recent innovation in teaching the language arts. A characteristic of the portfolio process is that students are led to notice their own progress through the work included in the portfolio. Many educators welcome the portfolio process because they recognize that standardized tests do not tell enough about what…

Test publishers have promoted their commercially available norm-referenced achievement tests as viable solutions to assessment challenges faced by states. They argue that their tests are developed professionally and therefore possess sound psychometric properties not often found in state-specific efforts. This study compared judgments from two…

Investigated the possible use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-168 as a screening instrument for identifying individuals (N=27) with borderline personality disorders. Results demonstrated that the MMPI-168 response pattern of borderline patients was clearly distinguishable from the great majority of college graduates. (WAS)

Tested for a link between Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale scores and personality style by comparing WAIS scores with Rorschach Experience Balance scores in two studies using 47 children and 188 psychiatric patients. Statistical analyses showed no significant relationships, indicating lack of a common factor underlying the measures. (WAS)

This review, with profiles of 51 available writing/language usage tests from most major test publishing companies, provides technical information on the tests, the evolution of test characteristics, the tests' role as writing samples, and issues in psychometric quality. Published objective writing tests are changing in important and positive ways.…

A number of major studies are discussed concerning the effects of testing on schools and needed changes in test use to improve education. Test use is analyzed at building and classroom levels for insights on better education, and at local, state, and national levels for oversights of educational progress. (Author/CM)

The correlations between the scores on the 1966, 1973, and 1979 norms on Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices for 140 economically disadvantaged students in grades three and five were significantly high. It seems appropriate to use any of the three sets of norms with economically disadvantaged students. (Author)

Community colleges have substantially different testing needs from four-year colleges. Since almost all community colleges are open-door institutions, tests are used less for admissions purposes than for placement, guidance, and awarding of credit. (Author)

Reasonable and practical solutions to two major problems confronting the developer of any test of educational achievement (what to measure and how to measure it) are proposed, defended, and defined. (Author/PN)

A structure for describing different approaches to testing is generated by identifying five dimensions along which tests differ: test uses, item generation, item revision, assessment of precision, and validation. These dimensions are used to profile tests of reading comprehension. Only norm-referenced achievement tests had an inference system…

Compares direct and indirect writing assessment strategies and contrasts them in terms of the relationship each has to specific classroom decision-making situations, the components of writing assessed, practical testing matters, characteristics of test exercises, test scoring procedures, and procedures for determining test quality. (HOD)

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III) was factor analyzed with a sample of 106 deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Two factors emerged, labeled "Language Comprehension" and "Visual-Spatial Orientation." Implications and future directions for the assessment of deaf and hearing-impaired students are…

The stability of a physical disability construct was examined across instruments and samples, not to report a formal equating of instrument calibrations, but to indicate whether such an effort could succeed. Implications of using Rasch analysis, often used in educational research, and the possibility of developing a universal metric are discussed.…

Five forms of a basic science examination administered over three years in a national board testing program were analyzed to determine the stability of judged cut scores. Results indicate that cut scores derived from the modified Nedelsky procedure were within equating error of the Rasch equated cut scores over the five administrations. (SLD)

A study involving 83 college students, 83 community residents, and 103 patients was conducted to establish cutoff scores on the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IPP) (L. Horowitz and others, 1988) for judging clinically significant improvement in interpersonal functioning. The IPP could distinguish among students, patients, and an asymptomatic…