In fall 1986, a study was conducted at Florence-Darlington Technical College (South Carolina) to measure the reliability and validity of the TEC-MAT, a newly developed entrance test. The TEC-MAT instrument, a criterion-referenced test consisting of 100 items assessing numerical skills, was field tested among a group of entry-level freshmen already…

A study of students' and teachers' attitudes toward cheating in the classroom of English as a second language (ESL) compared responses of five groups to a questionnaire concerning the use of crib notes, copying from another student's test, and allowing or refusing to allow another student to copy in hypothetical test situations. The comparison…

This review of literature from the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database is the second volume on the topic of testing and assessment for the counseling professional; the first volume was published in 1979. The sections on minimum competency tests identify issues of current interest, e.g., the basic issue of definition; the…

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was administered to 26 hearing impaired college students, in order to test the assumption that the English-language deficiencies of hearing impaired students are similar to those of foreign students. The students were attending Gallaudet College's School of Preparatory Studies and were identified…

Debate on criteria for assessing sex fairness in occupational interest inventories has centered on four issues: (1) whether interpretational material should stress the prospect of social change or the reality of present occupational segregation by sex; (2) the appropriate form for reporting scores (raw, pooled sex norms, or separate sex norms);…

In a series of essays, the author analyzes and comments on the perceived weaknesses of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) testing program. The basis of his criticism is that the NAEP has attempted to establish national norms, thereby disregarding the pluralistic nature of American society and the historical basis for community…

New Canadian minority students, ages 6-16 were the subjects of this study on evaluation practices, educational policies, and placement procedures. The term denotes immigrants of West Indian, East Indian, or Portuguese origin, or other non-Anglo-Saxon background. Structured interviews were conducted with 34 Ontario boards of education and with 245…

Present and past efforts to enhance school efficiency have failed. Progressive Era reforms of a half-century ago contributed to the creation of a publicly insensitive, professionally dominated education system. Accountability enthusiasts of the '70s failed to understand the fundamental misalignment between the assumptions underlying private sector…

This conference focused on the broad theme, improving the quality and scope of measurement. The first session centered on improving criteria for educational and psychological measurement, with papers on Criteria for Complex Mental Processes by Robert C. Wilson and on Criteria of Nonintellectual Aspects of Personality by Morris I. Stein. The second…

THE DIRECTOR OF TESTING OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION (MLA), WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF 28 SELECTED IMPARTIAL PROFESSIONALS, PRODUCED INDIVIDUALLY AND IN TEAMS THIS CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE MLA FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TESTS IN ORDER TO POINT OUT EXISTING DEFICIENCIES AND TO SUGGEST IMPROVEMENTS IN FUTURE TEST DEVELOPMENT. THIS HANDBOOK…

Summaries are presented of the problems and issues of minimum competency testing which were discussed at four regional conferences for political and educational practitioners. The Education Commission of the States sponsored the conferences, but took no official position of support or opposition. Section 1 compares the legislative, practitioner,…

Forming a sequence covering the various aspects of the simplex model, four articles are presented here under the following titles: "A Simplex Model for Analyzing Academic Growth", "Analyzing Ratings With Correlated Intrajudge Measurement Errors", "The Correlation of States With Gain", and "The Reliability of…

On March 11 and 12, 1976, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a project of the Education Commission of the States (ECS), and the Clearinghouse for Applied Performance Testing (CAPT), a project of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL), cohosted a Minimal Competency Measurement Conference in Denver, Colorado.…

To study the home environment of the Puerto Rican as it relates to the children's academic achievement, 45 working class families were interviewed and these variables were investigated: achievement, classroom behavior inventory in relation to academic achievement, the effect of bilinguality on academic achievement, the influence of examiner…

Conference papers on early childhood education cover the following topics: individual variation among preschoolers in a cognitive intervention program in low income families presented by Phyllis Levenstein, programmatic research on disadvantaged youth and an ameliorative intervention program by Merle B. Karnes and others, special education and…