Describes two experiments that examined the conditions determining age changes in novelty preferences of children. (HOD)

This study assessed the influence of reading ability and difficulty of material on types of oral reading errors made by 42 second-grade children. Overall, types of errors changed as the material became more difficult. The interactions between reading ability and difficulty level were also significant. (Author/BS)

Using eighth-grade subjects, a study examined the strategy differences between good and poor readers as they summarized what they had read. (HOD)

Biased test items were intentionally imbedded within a test and administered to large samples of Black and White college students. Three item bias detection methods (the three-parameter item characteristic curve procedure, the chi-square method, and the transformed item difficulty approach) were applied to the data. (Author/PN)

Administered three item-difficulty sequence forms of an achievement test to 107 sixth-grade students. No relationship between item-difficulty sequence and test performance, reliability, or item difficulty and discrimination was discovered. (Author/JAC)

Analyzes the exploratory patterns of 112 children ages 4 to 12, using visual and auditory stimuli and toy preference and toy exploration tasks. Finds that a preference for complexity and for unknown toys increases with age and notes age differences in exploratory patterns and question-asking behavior. (Author/CB)

The effects of violating four item construction principles were examined to assess the validity of the principles and the importance of students' test wiseness. While flawed items were significantly less difficult than sound items, differences in item discrimination, test reliability, and concurrent validity were not observed. (Author/BW)

One of the most prevalent and controversial accommodations for students with disabilities is an audio presentation of written test material, the "read-aloud" accommodation. This study used test administration data from the Missouri Assessment Program to examine effects of using the read-aloud accommodation on the characteristics of…

This study of Chicago teachers' assignments in mathematics and writing in grades 3, 6, and 8 shows that students who received assignments requiring more challenging intellectual work also achieved greater than average gains on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills in reading and mathematics, and demonstrated higher performance in reading, mathematics,…

International comparative educational studies make use of test instruments originally developed in English by international panels of experts, but that are ultimately administered in the language of instruction of the students. The comparability of the different language versions of these assessments is a critical issue in validating the…

Two experiments reproduced in a simulated computerized test-taking situation the effect of two of the main determinants in answering an item in a test: the difficulty of the item and the time available to answer it. A model is proposed for the time to respond or abandon an item and for the probability of abandoning it or answering it correctly. In…

Because no previous study was found in which both blank position in the item stem and positional placement of the correct response were studied simultaneously, it was decided to investigate the influence of these two factors, alone and in combination, on the difficulty level of verbal analogy items. (Authors)

Results were interpreted in terms of an initial tendency for Ss to guess in order of frequency followed by a change to guessing words at the appropriate frequency level. (Author)

One purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different levels of item complexity on subsequent student achievement to help clarify the effectiveness of the transfer and hierarchical models. (Authors/MB)